Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri was one of the first women in Opus Dei. She was born on 12 December 1916 and raised in a Catholic family in Madrid. She completed a Chemistry degree at Madrid’s Central University in 1939 after the Spanish Civil War, where she was one of five women in her class. She met St. Josemaría, the founder of Opus Dei, and immediately connected with what he taught: that professional work and ordinary life were ways to find and love God. She joined Opus Dei in 1944 and soon became a great support to the Founder in those early years.
Her desire to love God was the driving force behind everything she did and overflowed through her love for the others and her contagious cheerfulness.
Already as a child, courage was a defining feature of her personality. She was a pioneer in many ways: she started the first university residence for women called Zurbarán in Madrid, then in 1950 she started Opus Dei with women in Mexico and stayed until 1956. After working for one year with St Josemaría in Rome she returned to Madrid due to a serious heart condition.
However her illness did not hold her back. She completed a doctorate in Chemistry and taught for the last eight years of her life.
A woman of heroic virtue, Guadalupe is the first woman of Opus Dei to be beatified. It took place in Madrid on 18 May 2019. This biography gives a glimpse of the most important aspects of her life and personality.