'Gaudi, the Man, the Artist, the Christian',  by Lluis Martinez Cardinal Sistach.

‘Gaudi, the Man, the Artist, the Christian’, by Lluis Martinez Cardinal Sistach.

Cardinal Lluís Martínez Sistach, Archbishop of Barcelona, Spain, guides readers on a journey to discover Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia Basilica and its creator, architect Antoni Gaudí, in a new volume from the Vatican Publishing House, Gaudí: The Man, the Artist, the Christian.

“The publication of this volume comes at a propitious moment,” Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops, writes in the book’s preface. “It comes halfway between the first Synod on the Family in October 2013, and the second one, to be held in 2015, like a precious pearl or an important tile in the mosaic of the Synod.”

La Sagrada Familia is the masterwork of Gaudí, who drew inspiration from nature, the Bible and the Liturgy, and imbued it with rich religious symbolism. The book is divided into 15 chapters and three main parts, corresponding to the basilica’s three façades, which are dedicated to the Nativity, the Passion, and the Glory of Jesus Christ.

“These pages help readers accompany the architect along a journey expressed in the three façades of the Basilica,” Sistach writes. “The façade of the Nativity corresponds to Gaudí’s lively youth; that of the Passion embodies his encounter with suffering, illuminated by the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ; finally, the façade of the Glory, or entrance into the light of God, expresses the preparation and guarantee of the entire Christian life in the Spirit. The basilica has three sides to it, and so this little book has three parts,” Sistach explains in the introduction.

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