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Origins:

In 1866, a layman in Barcelona, called Josep Maria Bocabella, at Montserrat, contemplating a picture of the Holy Family escaping to Egypt (now in a side chapel of the monastery's church), receives the inspiration to found an association to spread devotion to Saint Joseph and the Holy Family. Saint Joseph has just been declared patron saint of the Universal Church.He prints a magazine, El Propagador, and in 1880, after 15 years, he has lots of subscribers, about 500.000 of them.

Fr. Josep Maria Manyanet, founder of the Catalan congregation of the Holy Family, suggests to the layman Bocabella, the idea of building a Church dedicated to the Holy Family.

In 1881, Bocabella's association buys the land: a whole block in the projected district of the Eixample in the city of Barcelona. The project is entrusted to the diocesan architect, Francesc de P. Villar who is asked to design a church like that in Loreto which, according to legend, contains the very home (or cave) of the Holy Family of Nazareth transported there by angels. Homes in Nazareth were half-caves, with a little wall and windows built into the front. So Nazareth talks about Christ's humility, who as the Lord of the Universe, the Son of God, becomes the son of the carpenter in an insignificant village in the Roman Empire: Bocabella is deeply impressed by this.

Construction begins the day of Saint Joseph of 1882. A year later, in 1883, when the columns in the Crypt have not yet reached half their height, the diocesan architect resigns. The problem, apparently, lay in the construction technique: blocks of carved stone, even inside the thick walls and columns; while Bocabella's idea was to save money by only carving the stone that was visible on the outside. Villar didn't agree, so he left. Now a new architect had to be found.

And this is how a young 31-year-old architect, named Antoni Gaudí, came to work on the church!

The design is not his own, he is asked just to follow Villar's drawings using a more economical construction technique. He finishes the Crypt in 1890, and in the same year construction of the apse begins. Sadly, in 1892, Bocabella dies and is buried in the Crypt. In 1894 the apse is completed.

Gaudi introduces a few changes and ornamentation details into Villar's Gothic design. He has a trench dug around the Crypt to enable more daylight to shine in through the stained glass windows. On the apse he also sets the plants, wheat sheaves, and the creatures - serpents, lizards, snails, frogs - that inhabited the area when it was surrounded by fields.

In 1894, the apse is completed and work starts on the Nativity façade. The construction committee has received a generous anonymous donation of 800.000 pesetas. Gaudí has convinced the committee to forget Villar's Gothic project which had one bell tower, and to continue the church in a Modernist design, with 18 bell towers!

The design of the church Gaudí proposes is inspired by the vision in the book of Revelation, chapters 21 and 22. It is the vision of the Celestial Jerusalem: a symbolic representation of the Church in Heaven; eternity with God. Gaudí used to say that the Church is always building places of worship that are bridges to eternity, because they point to the ultimate reality which is not that of this passing world .

Celestial Jerusalem is a city built on twelve stones which carry the names of the twelve apostles of the Lord. Gaudí will put twelve towers on the three façades, each one dedicated to an apostle. The apostles, according to Catholic tradition, have successors: the bishops. On top of each tower are the episcopal insignias: mitre, pectoral cross and ring, in the form of the staff. Just under the mitre is the initial of the apostle. On the Nativity façade, these are: B, for Barnabas, S, for Simon, J, for Judas Thaddeus, and M, for Mathias.

On each tower, there is the statue of the apostle, seated, with his name in full, written vertically.

The centre set of towers

In the Celestial Jerusalem, says the Book of Revelation, there is no sun nor moon, because the Lord is the light. For this reason, Gaudí places a shining cross above the centre tower dedicated to Jesus Christ. The Cross will be made of metal and crystal reflecting the sunshine during the day. At night it will radiate powerful beams of light. ‘It will be the most beautiful ornament in the city of Barcelona, and will be visible from a long distance’, Gaudí used to comment to visitors. Some of the light from the Cross will be directed through the four towers of the evangelists, down towards the top of the apostles' towers, where reflectors will project the light downwards. The light of Christ in the gospels is spread by the apostles through the world.

The centre tower will reach 170 metres, because ‘man's work cannot exceed God's work’, said Gaudí. The base of the church is 30 metres above sea level, and God's closest little mountain, Montjuïc (the mountain of the Jews), is 200 metres above the sea: hence the 170 metres. The project is very ambitious, and Gaudí knew it well, but nevertheless he was determined not to outdo God!

In Gaudi's Modernist church, the nave is clearly a forest. The columns branch out like trees, and the light enters through rounded openings in the roof, reminiscent of light shining through the leaves in a forest. Gaudi's concern is the continuity of shapes proper to nature: in a tree there are no pointed arches nor right angles. One can follow with the eye from the base of a column to the other and there are no discontinuities.

The four columns around the main altar are dedicated to the four evangelists. Surrounding these are the columns dedicated to the apostles. The other columns bear the names of the major archdioceses in Spain. In the large side windows, the names of the major Marian sanctuaries in the world will be worked in stained glass.

On the main altar, above the crypt, the interior space will reach a height of 75 metres (the highest exterior point of the Cathedral of Barcelona would fit inside). On the dome above will be a mosaic showing God the Father; above the altar, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, and on the altar, Christ, the Son, on the Cross - the Holy Trinity. On entering the nave of the church, the eye will be caught by the mosaic of God the Father way up in the distance, 75 metres above the altar.

The Nativity façade

On the façades, Gaudí depicts the central mysteries of the Christian faith, the clear purpose being to impress the visitor with the work of God's salvation. On the Nativity façade the central mystery of the Faith is represented: the Incarnation of the Son of God, who is Lord and Creator of the universe. This façade represents the universe and nature where God the Creator becomes a creature in the person of Jesus Christ: God made man.

The rising sun shines on this façade: it is the joy of life; the joy of creation, because in Christ, God has become one of us.

In the centre of the nativity façade, Gaudí shows the mystery of the Incarnation in its depth. The scene of the birth of Jesus, with Mary, Joseph, the ox and the mule, is on a column with names in spiral of the predecessors of the Messiah down to Abraham. This column is surrounded by a fence, symbolising man’s slavery to selfishness and pride from which the Son of God has come to free us; the head of a serpent being crushed by the column, symbolises this saving action.

We listen to this at Christmas Midnight Mass, in the second reading from the apostle Paul:

Above the Nativity scene, the star of Bethlehem is in vertical; the star that shone in the sky leading the Wise Men from the east (left) and the shepherds (right); and above this is the scene of the Annunciation. The Angel Gabriel announces to the kneeling Mary, that she will conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit. Over this scene, in an arch on the wall of the Church, are the constellations in the sky on Christmas night: from right to left: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo and Virgo. The symbols of these constellations are represented with stars on them.

The elements of nature - water in solid state, plants, animals - are on the wall of the church; and over this, in a cave, the crowning of Mary queen of heaven and earth. Further up, is JHS, Latin for 'Jesus Saviour of men'. Above is a cypress tree covered by green mosaic, symbol of eternity. In a cemetery, the cypress says two things: 1. ‘These bones are buried here, but their souls are with God in heaven’ (to which it points). 2. ‘One day these bones will come back to life, as Jesus did, not to die again, incorruptible - as I am ever-green, symbol of what never decays’.

On the tree are doves. They represent, according to Gaudí, our souls attracted towards eternity with God through the love of Christ: 'Raised on the Cross I will draw all men to my self'. The sacrificial love of Christ on the cross, is represented by a pelican feeding its little ones under the tree. According to a medieval tradition, the pelican wounds its breast in order to give the offspring its blood to drink, and so it became a symbol of Christ who sheds his blood for us on the Cross. On both sides, angels are gathering up the blood from the cross into chalices.

On top of the cypress is a symbol of the Holy Trinity. According to some writers, the T is the Greek initial for God the Father, Theos, (it is also the Hebrew Tau - in the shape of the Cross - the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, equivalent to the Greek Omega, also symbolic of the end or of eternity). An X-shaped ribbon on it refers to Xristos, Christ in Greek. A dove on top represents the Holy Spirit. Gaudi repeatedly symbolises the Holy Trinity in many places throughout the Church. He understands that Christianity speaks of eternity in the core of an infinite mystery of interpersonal relations of Life and Love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Following an ancient medieval tradition, the portals on the façades are called, from left to right: hope, charity and faith. On the side portals of hope and faith, are scenes from the infancy of Jesus.

At the lower centre is Joseph with the child Jesus surrounded by carpentry tools. On either side, according to tradition, are Mary’s parents, Ana and Joaquim. To the left is the scene of the Holy Family escaping to Egypt to avoid the child’s being killed by Herod. The murder of the innocents in Bethlehem is represented on the right of the portal.

The sculptures are from Gaudi’s time. These are copies of people who lived in the area or who were related to the workers. Gaudí put a layer of plaster on the person who had to remain still for a long time, so he was later able to make an exact copy in stone. The Roman soldier killing the babies is the copy of a very tall man who lived in the area. He was the grandfather of an old lady who is now a parishioner - she declares, ‘that’s my grandfather!’

For the sculpture of Joseph and the child Jesus, Gaudí looked a long time for a poor Jewish carpenter - but he never found one! In the scene of the flight into Egypt, Mary, Joseph, the powerful angel leading the Holy Family and even the little baby Jesus in Mary’s arms, are copies of real people.

The donkey is also a copy of a real-life one! Gaudí searched a long time for the right donkey. Those who had donkeys brought them to him, each one in the hope that his would be chosen as the model – Gaudi’s church was starting to be famous! He had to discard these donkeys because they were too fit. The scene is a very humble one, he would say to the expectant owner; he needed a frail donkey. It was finally found! Owned by an old lady in the nearby village of Gracia (now a district in the city) who sold manure for the gardens. The manure was pulled in a small cart by a weak, little donkey. It was exactly the one Gaudí had been looking for! The construction committee bought the animal, and the money paid enabled the old lady to retire for the rest of her life.

One day a gypsy cut the donkey’s hair, so that Gaudí could put the layer of plaster on it in order to make a copy of the animal. People don’t expire in this process, and nor would the donkey. The old lady was present and thinking her old donkey, whom she still loved very much, would die, almost had a heart attack when Gaudí put the plaster over it; but neither she nor the animal died. The donkey continued to live in a stable made for him on the construction site until he died of old age.

Higher up Gaudí places the betrothal of Mary to Joseph in the Temple of Jerusalem. Above this is a small boat which symbolises the Church. Joseph is steering it, since he had already been declared patron of the Universal Church.

Finally, at the very top of the portal of hope is a large pointed rock which is a reference to the mountain of Montserrat, where the founder, Josep Maria Bocabella, was first inspired to start his association. In cursive letters on the rock is written: ‘Salva-nos’, ‘save us’, addressed to Our Lady of Montserrat, now the patroness of Catalonia.

The boy Jesus, at twelve years of age, is represented seated in the Temple as he was found among the Doctors of the Law. On the right, Zacharias writes the name of John in Greek, Ioannes, on the wall. Down to the right, the parents of Jesus are shown finding him in the Temple - further to the right, Christ, as a young man, working as carpenter. On the left, Mary visits her cousin Elisabeth.

Higher up, in a cave, is the scene of the Presentation of the baby Jesus in the Temple. According to Jewish Law, he was taken to the Temple when he was eight days old to be circumcised. The old man, Simeon, takes the child in his arms and blesses God under the attentive gaze of the Prophetess Anna, standing behind, and of Mary kneeling in front with Joseph standing on the other side. In front is the basket with the offering of the poor: two doves. The Holy Family of Nazareth was a poor one who couldn't afford to buy a lamb as the offering for their first-born.

Above this and in another cave, is the Immaculate Conception. Further up, there is a hand with an eye in the middle: God's providing hand - providence. Finally, on top of the portal are wheat sheaves, symbol of the Eucharist.

On the side walls adjacent to the façades, Gaudi puts the statues of founding saints; Christians who have lived their lives in an exemplary way and who are set as models to follow. Gaudí piles up their good works on fruit baskets above them. Spring fruits (peaches, prunes, cherries, apricots) on the side wall facing the sunrise, and autumn fruits (oranges, kakis, figs and almonds) on the side wall facing the sunset.

When Gaudí comes to work at Sagrada Família he is 31, and up to that age apparently not at all religious. But we can't say, as some pretend, that he had been anti-clerical because, among other things, he wouldn't have been accepted by Josep Maria Bocabella, a devout Catholic.

What is certain, is that at that age Gaudí experiences a conversion of heart through the remarkable influence of Bishop Grau from Reus, a friend of the family and bishop of Astorga, and also through the great impact of his friendship with Enric d'Ossó (later canonised). A niece of Gaudí, who recently declared for his beatification, said that Bishop Grau caused Gaudí and his father to 'fall down', expressing this conversion of heart that he helped to bring about in them.

As a result of this conversion, Gaudí starts attending daily Mass; he begins to read the Bible every day. He also has a spiritual director, a priest from the Saint Philip Neri Oratory in Gracia, who leads him, via a profound grasp of the liturgy, into the depths of the Christian faith. Gaudi's bedside reading is Beranger's Anné Liturgique which centres on the liturgy of the Easter mystery.

He also chooses to adopt the lifestyle of a very poor man; becoming almost like a monk in Barcelona. He was one of the most famous architects in the city and could, therefore, have lived as a rich man. He worked on many other assignments simultaneously with Sagrada Família, but this became his great personal project, with a clear objective: for the visitor to come away impressed by God's saving work. Deeply impressed himself, Gaudí often explained his work with tears in his eyes.

The last ten years of his life he worked exclusively on Sagrada Família, for which he received no payment; instead he actually begged for money for the project, trusting in God's providence. One day, a wealthy woman gave him an inheritance and then took it back again! Gaudí said to her: 'Madam, with your money or without your money, we will build this because Saint Joseph is a saint with many resources.' Often, when he was questioned as to the expected completion of the work, he would point to the sky and say: 'My client is not in a hurry'. When asked if he thought his successors would finish his project, his answer was: 'My only concern is to do it so well now, that my successors will have no other choice than to complete it.'

Gaudí lived for many years in Park Güell, where he took care of his aged father and a sick niece of his, until their respective deaths. When Count Güell also died, he felt very lonely up there by himself, so he came to live in a corner of his workshop next to the Crypt. He dressed so shabbily, that when he was run down by the tram on June 10, 1926, at the intersection of Gran Via and Bailen, - on his way back from his daily prayers at the Cathedral - the person who picked him up from the ground thought that the tram had run over a beggar. He took him to the city's hospital for the poor in Carrer Hospital (Hospital Street) close to the Ramblas, and left him among the indigent sick. The following day, he was found there by the priest who lived with him. Two days later, he died from his injuries, and his last words were: 'Amen, my God, my God'. He had often expressed his desire to live as a poor man and die among the poor, and this became a reality.

In this chapel, Gaudí leaves us a profound spiritual testament, that of his own experience. We have told about his conversion at the age of 31. But conversion is a life-long process, and one is never as good a Christian as one would want to be. We have shortcomings and faults which we never quite overcome. Gaudí, for instance, had a bad temper and towards the end of his life he says: 'I have been a fighter, and have got my way in many aspects, but I have not been able to overcome my bad temper'. In this chapel, Gaudí represents the constant struggle that is Christian life and the fact that holiness and imperfection may very well be fellow travellers.

On the right spire Gaudí represents the temptation to violence. A man is being tempted with a bomb by the devil in the guise of a horrible fish. This is a reference to the infamous bombing of Barcelona's Liceo theatre, in which many people were killed. The temptations of money and vanity are represented on the left spire; a young girl is being tempted by the devil in the shape of another monstrous fish offering her a bag of money. The man is in contemplation and the girl is in prayer, both looking at Mary - the idea is that we are tempted in many ways throughout our lives, but can overcome or face it effectively through prayer and contemplation.

Remember, this is the chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary; the Rosary which Gaudí prayed daily, is contemplation and prayer. Contemplation of what God has done for us (Incarnation; the joyful mysteries. Passion; the sorrowful mysteries. Resurrection and the hope of Eternal Life; the glorious mysteries). This cannot leave us the same, it has to change us inside, it has to make us want to respond with love to so much love! Also, the attitude of prayer is essential to Christian life, since in it we find the inner peace and strength to be faithful to God, and not to despair when we fail. Such are the saints whom Gaudí places in the chapel.

Here, Gaudí positions the statues of certain saints whose human failings the Bible doesn’t attempt to hide; both saints and sinners at the same time. On the left are David and Solomon, and on the right, the scene where Jacob tricks his blind father, Isaac, into blessing him instead of his brother. David, Solomon and Jacob are sinners - and saints - simultaneously; a saint is not someone who never falls, but someone who gets up no matter how often he falls.

The struggle against sin lasts until the moment of death. On the left, a dying man who at the moment of his death, according to a deeply rooted Catalan tradition, puts his soul in the hands of Jesus, Joseph and Mary, ‘Jesus, Joseph and Mary I give you my heart and soul’ (Jesús, Josep i Maria, us dono el cor i l’ànima meva). In the chapel the Hail Mary is written: ‘... pray for us sinners: now, and at the hour of our death. Amen’.

When Gaudí dies in 1926, only the left tower on the Nativity façade is finished. That façade is completed in 1935 according to Gaudi's plaster models. Then, in 1936, comes the civil war causing much damage to the church, and Gaudi's plaster models for the whole project are destroyed. After the war, in 1939, the models are restored but construction doesn't continue. For many years, the Gothic apses and the four towers of the Nativity façade is all that there is. The neighbourhood children run up and down the towers all day and everyday; they play hide-and-seek among the statues and scenes in the façade. This state of affairs continues until 1954 when a Mexican businessman comes to Barcelona. He is very impressed with the whole project, and after a visit to the church says to the architect: ‘I'll pay for a tower on the Passion façade’. With this important donation construction starts again. In 1975, the year of Franco’s death, the façade is completed according to Gaudi's drawing.

Gaudi designs a very different façade for the Passion than that designed for the birth of Christ - the birth of a child is one thing, the death of a man on a cross is quite another. Here, Gaudi seeks to impress the visitor with the mystery of the suffering and death of Christ. The inclined columns are human bones, tibias, framing the Passion. On the top are a cross, the empty tomb and two sets of stairs with columns descending from the empty tomb to symbolise Christ's descent into hell: 'He descended into hell', we say in the Creed, meaning that Christ reached the depths of human misery to ransom us from death and give us eternal life. On the two set of stairs are the Patriarchs and the Prophets.

In 1985 the sculptor, Subirachs, is hired to do the scenes on the façade. He is chosen because his type of sculpture helps to convey forcefully, the impact of what Gaudí wants to communicate: the mystery of Christ's unspeakable spiritual and physical suffering. Subirachs is allowed to introduce some changes while respecting Gaudi's overall design. In Gaudi's original drawing, those who followed Christ are one side, confronting those who were against him on the other, with the cross placed at bottom centre. Subirachs chooses to follow the Way of Cross culminating in the Crucifixion on top.

The first scene, down on the left, is that of the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. Their faces and comportment depict confusion and despair. Judas is represented with the bag of money. Subirachs puts a little dog behind him. The fidelity of the animal contrasts with the infidelity of the disciple. The following words are written on the table cloth: 'El que estas fent fes-ho depressa' ('What you are doing, do quickly'), Jesus' words to Judas who was about to betray him.

On the right, Peter has cut off the ear the High Priest's servant, and has fallen to the ground holding the sword.

On the wall, a magical square of numbers. The numbers add up to 33 in more than 500 combinations (all the rows, columns, etc). Two numbers appear twice, 10 and 14; their sum is 48, which is the numerical value of the word INRI (if the Latin alphabet is numbered from 1 to 26), the initials of the title in Latin on the cross: Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaiorum. Next to it, Judas, tempted by the devil (represented by a serpent behind him), betrays Jesus with a kiss.

In the centre of the façade, the scene of the flagellation of Jesus is rich in the symbolism of the resurrection and of the new heaven and the new earth, which Jesus inaugurates with his victory over sin and death. Jesus embraces the column, indicating that his saving passion on our behalf is voluntary:

‘... I lay down my life, that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it back again; this charge I have received from the Father’ (Jn 10,17-18a).

Behind the column is the Alpha and the Omega, which symbolise Jesus: the beginning and end.

The column has a displaced block that seeks to symbolise two things:

1. After the third block, it is the fourth that is displaced: ‘On the third day he rose from the dead’. So, it represents the displaced stone at the entrance of the sepulchre: The resurrection.
2. Again, it is a stone that is out of place; it has been displaced. With this the sculptor symbolises the fact that Jesus ‘breaks the old world’: this precarious world of death, of sin and lies which, through Christ's resurrection, has been overcome, displaced in a definite way. Jesus rises not to die again! With His death he has overcome death and has given us eternal life!

In human suffering there are two dimensions: physical and spiritual-psychological. Jesus suffered physically – symbolised by the knot - but also underwent a terrible spiritual-psychological suffering in the humiliation represented by the reed: he was crowned with a crown of thorns and was struck on the head with a reed.

The three steps are the three days in the sepulchre. Three steps from this world to God's eternity. Behind Jesus, in the rock: the fossil of a palm branch, symbol of the victory of the martyr. This fossil appears by chance - many see in it more than a coincidence!

On the right, Peter is crying because he has denied the Lord three times. The women who asked Peter if he was one of the followers of Jesus, are represented alongside the cock that crowed.

Pilate, troubled and doubting, is seated next to Jesus crowned with the thorns and holding the cane with which he was struck on the head. Pilate, with the Imperial Eagle behind him, is asking the crowd what to do with The Man. Subirachs' idea is to bring the visitor into the scene, playing the role of those who asked for Christ's crucifixion.

In the scene above, Jesus has fallen for the first time. The women of Jerusalem cry for him and Simon of Cyrene helps him to carry the cross.

Higher up, on the left, Christ has fallen again and is telling the women of Jerusalem not to cry for him. Veronica is holding the cloth with the imprint of Jesus' face. As a legendary figure (she is not in the Gospels), she is featureless. Behind her, there are two Roman soldiers who look like Star Wars characters; their helmets are shaped like the chymneys in La Pedrera, another important building by Gaudí in the City. To the left is an old man in profile. It is Antoni Gaudí! So Subirachs does homage to the architect. Gaudí is taking notes - therefore he is represented as the evangelist who then puts the Gospel into stone.

A Roman soldier, riding a horse, pierces the wall of the church, representing the body of Christ.

In the scene above, Roman soldiers cast lots for Jesus' robe - on a table which is made taking a genuine human vertebra as a model.

Christ is represented on the Cross, inclined over the world because he dies for the world. Christ is naked! Subirachs' intention is to represent the crucifixion in its crude reality. At the foot of the cross: Adam's skull, symbol of mortal humanity which Christ redeems (rescues) from death - being God, by dying he destroyed death; and death could, in no way, retain the Author of Life. Also at the foot of the cross, are Mary Magdalene kneeling on the ground, Mary, the mother of Jesus and John the Evangelist. Up, on the right is the moon, symbol of the darkness that was cast over the earth. It is also the full moon which marks the date of Easter.

Above the cross is the veil of the Temple which was torn in two when Jesus expired. Christ has re-vealed (taken away the veil) God's true countenance. By his death on the cross, the mystery of God's infinite mercy has been made manifest - 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do'. A mosaic is visible through the torn veil, where a scene from the Celestial Jerusalem is represented: the lamb that was slain, standing in front of God's throne: slain and standing, therefore risen!

To the right, is the scene in which Christ is layed in the tomb. Joseph of Arimathea is laying Jesus in the tomb assisted by a man who looks very much like the sculptor, Subirachs - the hand of the sculptor is magnified, and the initial 'S' is carved into the stone. Mary is represented looking on. An egg is placed above her head: it is a symbol of the Resurrection; of the sealed sepulchre from which Christ emerges alive.

In 1885, Mass was celebrated for the first time on the altar dedicated to Saint Joseph, in the crypt. In 1886 the Marian Cogregations began giving catechecism to the children in the poor neigbourhood of Poblet, in the open fields next to the crypt under construction. In 1890 Mass and other religious services started in the crypt. Gaudí proposed the new project of the Modernist Church, with the 18 belltowers. In 1910, Fr. Gil Parés, is named chapel custodian and director of the new parroquial school. In 1926, Gaudí dies. He was buried in the Crypt where today his remains rest; Bocabella who had died in 1892, was also buried there.

In 1930, the Parish was created separately from the Parish of Sant Martí del Clot. The first rector was Fr. Marià Bertran. In 1936 (at the start of the Spanish civil war) Fr. Gil Parés was killed, and Gaudí’s workshop was burned together with the parroquial house and the crypt. The four towers in the nativity façade, which had been completed a year earlier, were about to be dynamited. However, they were not destroyed because they served as a support for a machine gun to shoot at Franco’s planes as they bombarded the city. In 1939, at the end of the war, the parish administrator, Fr. Manuel Torner, restored the crypt and reestablished worship provisionally in the church of the Dominican sisters. Activities and parroquial life prospered. The following rectors were: Fr. Lluís Puig (1948), Joan Clerch (1955), Joan Pellisa (1975, and currently, Fr. Lluís Bonet i Armengol (1993).

Nowadays, the Sagrada Familia Parish is a busy parish in a densily populated area in the very centre of the city of Barcelona. Two Masses are celebrated daily, at 9 in the morning, in Spanish, and at 20.15 in the evening, in Catalan. On Sundays there are six masses: 9 in Spanish, 10.30 in Catalan, 11.45 in Spanish, 1 pm, in Catalan, 7 pm, in Catalan, and 8.15 pm in Spanish. Baptisms are celebrated every 15 days, on Sunday evenings. Catechism is still being coordinated by the Jesuit Christian Life Communities, the continuation of the ancient Marian Congregations. Preparation for marriage is conducted for groups of couples on a monthly basis: four meetings in the late evening during the month. Marriages are celebrated for those couples living in the parroquial area, or coming to live there. The sacraments of reconciliation and unction of the sick, are given upon request.

In the past years, the parish has given special attention to the immigrants coming mostly from South America (mainly Ecuador and Colombia). A job placement service is offered in the Parish house twice a week: Tuesday morning and Thursday evening. This is an initiative of the Deanery of the Sagrada Familia, which includes the 10 parishes in the centre of the city of Barcelona. Volunteers from the different parishes run the service which not only helps immigrants find jobs but also offers training for domestic work, Catalan lessons, and legal advice which is given by volonteer lawyers. Each Friday, over 100 food parcels are given out to the poor families in the area - immigrant and local families. Immigrant and poor families find themselves at home in the parish because the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, was itself a poor family of immigrants.

Often, groups of pilgrims and parroquial groups ask for a catechetical tour of the Church. The Parish gladly offers these in which the deep spiritual meaning of Gaudi’s work is explained. The purpose being, as Gaudí put it, to have the visitor come away impressed by God’s saving work. The love of God is indeed proclaimed by the Gospel in stone represented in the Church, but also by the living stones of the people in the parish who try to be living witnesses to the love of God.