Catholic organization founded by Josemaria Escriva' de Balaguer in 1928; currently eighty thousand members worldwide (laypersons and priests). Escriva's book The Way made controversial statements about the value and necessity of pain; such aspects of belief, along with the organization's great wealth, has made it a target for attacks by those who mistrust the Christian faith in general and the Roman Catholic Church in particular. Dan Brown inaccurately depicts Opus Dei as a monastic order (DVC, 28); it does not have monks, and its membership is lay oriented. See Escriva' de Balaguer, Josemaria.