On April 19, 2023, a conference took place in Houston (Texas) with the title,

“Camino de Andorra: The expedition of Saint Josemaría Escrivá crossing the Pyrenees, in the autumn of 1937”.

The communication system was online through Zoom and was recorded on YouTube. The attendees were able to connect from their respective cities and countries: Barcelona, Murcia, Madrid, Venezuela, Houston, Colombia, Mexico, etc.

It was organized by “Humano 4.0 USA”, based in Houston, and presented by William Colina, with the collaboration of Javier Vargas from Mexico.

The language used was Spanish.

Guest speakers:

-Jordi Piferrer, Vice President of the "Associació d'Amics del Camí de Pallerols de Rialb a Andorra", and author of several books on this expedition of Saint Josemaría.

-Salvador Serrano, Sports technician and mountain guide.

The duration of the conference was 1 hour 18 minutes, distributed as follows:

a) Presentation by William Colina (8 minutes)

b) Lecture by Jordi Piferrer (38 minutes)

c) Lecture by Salvador Serrano (13 minutes)

d) Colloquium between attendees (19 minutes)

Summary of the conference by Jordi Piferrer (38 minutes)

1. Brief political and social situation in Madrid in 1936

2. The reason for leaving Madrid

3. Escape expeditions to Andorra: the Llobregat and Segre paths

4. Itinerary covered by the Escrivá de Balaguer expedition

5. The moral or spiritual suffering of Saint Josemaría: Am I doing the will of God?; "the dark night". On 3 occasions:

5.1 In Barcelona: he wants to return to Madrid (October 1937)

5.2 In Pallerols: the Rialb rose (November 22)

5.3 In the Cabin of San Rafael (November 27)

6. Aubenç: “burn the ships” (November 28)

7. Physical suffering: the fainting spells of Saint Josemaría

7.1 On de mountain of Ares (November 29)

7.2 In the Civís River (December 1)

8. Crossing the border (night from December 1 to 2)

9. Saint Josemaría in Andorra (December 2-10)

Summary of Salvador Serrano's conference (13 minutes)

1. Physiological aspects of an escape expedition.

2. They came immunosuppressed due to stress due to persecution, lack of food, the cold of the Pyrenees in November, lack of shelter, inappropriate footwear, etc.

3. The positive aspect of stress is that they had a strong psychological conviction that they would make it to Andorra, as well as the supernatural inspiration that moved them to keep going despite the difficulties.

4. Currently, I find it very interesting to relive this experience following the same itinerary that Saint Josemaría followed, but with modern means: adequate clothing, footwear, and food.

5. All of this will undoubtedly be a magnificent opportunity to find this personal “path of liberation” in the midst of the silence of the mountains.