Two days before he died, Val Creus sent his younger sister a photo of a new statue of Mary under an unusual title: “Mother of Fairest Love.”
He often told her to ask Mary for her intercession with God under that name. He also served on the committee that helped get the seven-and-a-half-foot-high Carrara marble statue of a teenage Mary holding a toddler Jesus, which was made in Florence, Italy, delivered to St. Louise de Marillac Church in Covina, California, about 35 miles east of the Opus Dei center where he lived.
That same committee is raising funds to build a shrine to Mary under that title — a long-range project that will likely begin with a retreat center.
“My brother was really devoted to her,” Lourdes Creus told the Register. “When my brother was alive, he would always say: ‘Go to Mother of Fairest Love.’”
Val Creus, 59, drowned June 18 in a natural pool at Rattlesnake Falls in Tahoe National Forest, along with two other members of Opus Dei who jumped in to try to save him, Matt Schoenecker, 50, and Matt Anthony, 44, as the Register reported last week.
(Funeral Masses for the three men are scheduled for this coming week. Creus’ on Tuesday, July 15, in Los Angeles; Anthony’s in Dardenne, Missouri, on Wednesday, July 16; and Schoenecker’s on Friday, July 18, in Milwaukee.)
The story made national news, but with no mention of a devotion that Creus spent much of the last 10 years promoting.
Where Does The Devotion Come From?
“Mother of Fairest Love” is not a common title for Mary, but it has ancient roots.
In the Old Testament, the Book of Sirach quotes Wisdom — often linked with Mary in Catholic thought — as saying: “I am the mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope” (Sirach 24:24).
In November 1994, St. John Paul II entrusted the Church to Mary under that title in anticipation of the Jubilee Year of 2000, in his apostolic letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente: “She, the Mother of Fairest Love, will be for Christians on the way to the Great Jubilee of the Third Millennium the Star which safely guides their steps to the Lord.”
St. Josemaría Escrivá (1902-1975), the founder of Opus Dei, referred to Mary using that title repeatedly, including in his 1930s collection of spiritual sayings called The Way.
Around the 1950s, Escrivá predicted that the United States would have a Mother of Fairest Love shrine, according to Opus Dei Father Luke Mata, who also explained that about 10 years ago, the then-prelate of Opus Dei, who leads the organization, decided the shrine would be built in Los Angeles.
Enter Val Creus, who was appointed to the committee overseeing the project and threw himself into it, spreading the devotion everywhere he could.
“Typical Val. All in,” said Father Mata, who lived with Creus at an Opus Dei center in Los Angeles.
Creus pushed for smaller Mother of Fairest Love statues to be made, so families could take them into their homes for a few days. Three are now circulating. The practice began in April 2023, said JL Marti, an Opus Dei member who lives in Los Angeles.
Asked by text about Creus’ devotion to spreading the devotion, Marti replied: “Pretty ingenious and ambitious, almost unrealistic.”
“He wanted to reach first every parish in L.A., and then he said every diocese in the U.S.A.! This is verbatim. I was in the meeting,” Marti said.
Taking in the smaller statues for a time has become popular in some places, with noticeable spiritual benefits for families, Father Mata told the Register by telephone.
“I was a little skeptical, and Val said, ‘Father Luke, you just have to believe,’” Father Mata said.
Tied To Val’s Spiritual Work
Mary, the mother of Jesus, has hundreds of titles in the Catholic Church, many of them better known than Mother of Fairest Love. So why this one?
As a numerary of Opus Dei — a lay celibate member who works an ordinary job but also commits much of his spare time to spiritual and charitable activities — Val Creus was devoted to Escrivá, including Escrivá’s devotions.
But he also saw a practical application in his own life, since he often provided spiritual direction to male supernumeraries, married men who are members of Opus Dei.
“Val was so involved in Opus Dei with the formation of families, particularly dads. And he realized that our world right now is so in need of our Mother Mary, particularly helping to love with this pure love,” Father Mata said.
“So it wasn’t just a devotional thing. But it was also a mission-driven thing,” Father Mata said. “He saw this as part of what God wanted from him, and that without the help of our Mother, and particularly under this title, we will not be able to carry it out — that she’s essential in this mission.”
Val’s sister, Lourdes Creus, 49, a high-school special-education teacher and single mom, has started a GoFundMe page to raise money for the shrine (and also for the work of Juan Heredia, a volunteer diver who runs Angels Dive Recovery Team, who recovered the three men three days after they drowned).
Mother of Fairest Love ought to be in great demand, she said.
“There’s a real need in families. The devil strikes families. I see this in my classroom — kids who are broken,” she told the Register. “She’s geared round helping families build a foundation of love.”
She said her brother’s death three weeks ago has made her turn more sharply toward God and has driven away any acceptance of spiritual tepidness in her life.
“This whole experience has just changed me,” Lourdes said, adding that God has “put a new heart in my heart. The love is so pure.”