Canonization Causes of Eduardo Ortíz de Landázuri and his wife Laura Busca

News about the Canonization Cause of Dr. Eduardo Ortíz de Landázuri is now available in English. On June 14, the Archbishop of Pamplona opened the Cause of his wife, Laura Busca.

Eduardo Ortíz de Landázuri's Cause of Canonization was opened in 1998. He was a prestigious doctor and university teacher in Spain and helped begin the University of Navarra Hospital in Pamplona. 

During the Spanish Civl War (1936-1939), his father was condemned to death by the anti-Catholic government. He and his mother and sister spent the night with his father before he faced the firing squad. This led to a deep conversion in Eduardo's life and a sustained struggle to draw closer to God. 

Information about Dr. Eduardo's Cause of Canonization is available here.

Eduardo Ortíz de Landázuri (1910-1985) met his future wife Laura Busca (1913-2000) in 1935, when both were working at the King's Hospital in Madrid. She was one of the first women to study pharmacology at the university in Spain. 

Due to the war years in Spain, they weren't able to get married until 1941. Eventually they had seven children, and strove to make their family a "bright and cheerful home," as St. Josemaria always urged.

Called “Laurita” by those who knew her well, Laura's life was marked by an extraordinary self-giving in caring for her husband and children, and for many other people, drawing strength from her deep piety and love for God. She asked for admission to Opus Dei on January 8, 1953. 

From the 50’s she suffered from a painful back ailment, which she bore with fortitude and joyful acceptance of God’s will.  On December 11, 1998, she had the joy of being present, in Pamplona, at the opening of the Diocesan Process on the virtues of her husband Eduardo. She died in Pamplona, with a reputation for holiness, on October 11, 2000. 

Information about Laura Busca's Cause of Canonization is available here (in Spanish).

A photo gallery of her life can be seen here.

With the opening of Laura Busca's Cause, there are now twelve faithful of the Prelature whose Causes of Canonization have been opened. Besides that of her husband and of her sister-in-law Guadalupe Ortiz de Landázuri, these are: Bishop Alvaro del Portillo (declared "Venerable" by Benedict XVI on June 28, 2012), Isidoro Zorzano, Montse Grases, Ernesto Cofiño, Fr. José María Hernández Garnica, Toni Zweifel, Tomás Alvira  and his wife Paquita Domínguez, Encarnita Ortega, Fr. Joseph Múzquiz (whose Cause was opened in Boston), and Dora del Hoyo (the first numerary assistant in Opus Dei).