Opus Dei

The Work of God: personal prelature, private mortification, and a permanent seat in the theories.

Opus Dei: Catholic personal prelature founded 1928 by Josemaría Escrivá — real, canonically unique, historically secretive about membership, practicing corporal mortification (the cilice is documented, not invented by Dan Brown), and influential in Franco-era Spain and at the Vatican bank's margins. Documented: its statutes, John Paul II's fast-track canonization of Escrivá (2002), FBI agent-turned-spy Robert Hanssen's membership. Lore promotes it to church-within-church running world affairs; the record supports a disciplined, well-lawyered order that likes influence and dislikes light.