Opus Dei

Dora del Hoyo, whose canonization cause recently advanced, grew up on a farm amid a warm family atmosphere.

A few months ago the medical division of Social Security called me to tell me that I was no longer entitled to health insurance and prescription drug coverage. This was terrible news because I take a medication which would cost me about 300 euros every month. The following day I started trying to figure out how to solve this problem.

"Dora was always coherent with her Christian life. She lived the normal circumstances of each day with a generous self-giving and a cheerfulness that was evident," says Mons. Javier Echevarria, Prelate of Opus Dei.

“Dora once said that she thought she was the happiest woman in the world,” remembers Ezia Mucciarelli, who worked with Dora for 25 years, from August of 1971 until March of 1996.

Dora del Hoyo's example is an inspiration for the young people working in the Jahazi Conference Centre in Mombasa, Kenya. The first phase of Dora's cause of canonization was recently concluded in Rome.

Reactions from people who knew Dora personally, or who know of her life from other channels... all of them agree on one thing: Dora was somebody who was close to others, through her friendship and in her work.

On October 24 in Rome, at the closing of the first phase of the Servant of God's cause of canonization, Bishop Javier Echevarria summed up her life with these words: "serenity, peace, desires to be faithful."

​Some time ago, we decided to change part of the floor of the house. When the workers went to collect the new wood we had chosen, they found that the batch that was available had already been sold.

"What I like about Dora is the way that she loved others," says Lucka from the Czech Republic. Lucka is 15 years old and got to know Dora by reading her biography, ‘A Lighted Lamp’. "Of course, no one is born a saint, but Dora struggled to be one. In her presence, everyone felt loved and at the same time, she loved each person in a special way, without having preferences. I think that if we were more like her, we would make life more pleasant for others."

With this story, I wish to thank Dora for all the times she has lent me a hand. If it were not for her, many times I wouldn't make it to the end of day.