The Way (Camino), written by St. Josemaría Escrivá, founder of the University of Navarre, is one of the most translated works on language in Spanish, according to the new World Map of Translation of high school Cervantes. This tool, presented at the 9th edition of the International congress of the Spanish language (CILE) in Cadiz, places this book as the fourth most translated book from Spanish into other languages between 1950 and 2021, with a total of 142 translations.
Camino ranks behind Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote, which was translated 1,140 times, and Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, which were translated 265 and 158 times, respectively.
“In fact, if we take into account that the first three are fiction, it can be said that Camino is the most translated non-fiction work in Spanish language,” says Manuel Casado, Full Professor emeritus of language Spanish at the University of Navarre and corresponding member of the RAE.
The Way is recognized as a classic work of spiritual literature. “It has an evangelizing purpose and proposes a certain pathway (a way) of Christian life for ordinary people,” explains Full Professor. In this sense, he points out that various authors ascribe it “to the universal genre of the aphorism, of a long profane and Christian tradition, which has produced masterpieces in Spanish and universal culture”.
St. Josemaría Escrivá began writing it in the 1920s, compiling reflections and spiritual and apostolic experiences. The first edition was printed in Valencia in 1939, with an extension final of 999 points for meditation staff, on Christian life, character, apostolate, prayer, work and virtues. This figure is not accidental, since with a symbolic use of arithmetic the founder of Opus Dei wanted to pay homage to the Trinity.
“Camino is a collection of intuitions, experiences, advice, and intimate notes, written in a style that is at once lapidary and spontaneous, and can withstand multiple readings. These features of writing, in which the numerous biblical quotations are harmonized with anecdotes of daily life whispered in the reader’s ear as if in confidence, give this work a rootedness and freshness that make it so attractive,” says Manuel Casado.
568 editions at the University of Navarre
In the Virtual Library Services of the Center of programs of study Josemaría Escrivá of the University of Navarra there are 568 editions of The Way. Forty-two percent of them are printed at Spanish. The rest are in languages such as English, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, French, German and Japanese. There are also Braille versions in several languages: Spanish, English, German and Portuguese.
The University of Navarra is a private research university located on the southeast border of Pamplona, Navarre, Spain. It was founded in 1952. The University of Navarre has consistently been ranked as the best private university in Spain. In 2021, the university’s School of Law was ranked best in Spain and 44th in the world by Times Higher Education’s international rankings.
Through its six campuses (Pamplona, San Sebastián, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich and New York City), the university confers 35 official degrees, 13 dual degrees and more than 38 master’s programs in 14 faculties, 2 university schools, 17 institutes, its graduate business school, IESE (“Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa”; in English: “International Graduate School of Management” or “Institute of Higher Business Studies”), ISSA (“Instituto Superior de Secretariado y Administracion”; in English: Superior Institute of Secretarial and Administrative Studies), and other centers and institutions.
Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer y Albás (9 January 1902 – 26 June 1975) was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. He founded Opus Dei, an organization of laypeople and priests dedicated to the teaching that everyone is called to holiness by God and to discover sanctity in their ordinary lives. He was canonized in 2002 by Pope John Paul II, who declared Josemaría should be “counted among the great witnesses of Christianity.”
