What is it and why is it called Sagrada Familia?
The Holy Family is known in the Catholic religion as the group of biblical characters composed of the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph and Baby Jesuswhich are presented as a model of family holiness.
The Holy Family is a model of Christian virtues, not only those outlined in each of the people who make it up (for example, the patience of Mary, the chastity of Joseph or the holiness of Jesus), but those that emerge from the relationship between family members as a fundamental cell of the Christian community.
Murillo: Holy Family of the little bird. c. 1650. Oil on canvas. 144 x 188 cm.
In the New Testament there are various references to family moments between the characters such as the birth, the flight to Egypt, the Child Jesus found in the temple, etc. The apocryphal gospels also make reference to familiar scenes that have nourished artistic iconography. For example, the break from the flight to Egypt and the Holy Family in Saint Joseph’s workshop.
Feast of the Holy Family in the liturgical calendar
The Catholic Church celebrates the Holy Family annually. It is a mobile festival that is always part of the Christmas Octave, which takes place between December 25 and January 1. If there is a Sunday within the octave of Christmas, the feast of the Holy Family will take place that day. Otherwise, the holiday will be set for December 30.
See also:
Expiatory Temple La Sagrada Familia
The Sagrada Familia is a catholic basilicaemblematic symbol of the city of Barcelona designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852 – 1926).
This building is dedicated and consecrated to the Sagrada Familia. The official name is the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia or Expiatori Temple of the Sagrada Familia in Catalan.
The Spanish bookseller and philanthropist José María Bocabella (1815 – 1892), also president of the Holy Brotherhood, bought land in El Poblet, Barcelona for a little more than 1,000 euros in order to build a Catholic temple dedicated to the Holy Family.
The temple of La Sagrada Familia began its construction in 1882 with the deacon Francisco del Villar who impregnated a neo-Gothic style architecture. Due to conflicts with Bocabella, Antoni Gaudí was finally called in 1883 to take on the project.
Gaudí worked until his death at the Sagrada Familia for 43 years and was buried in the crypt of the Sagrada Familia temple, in the chapel of the Virgen del Carmen together with José María Bocabella.
The Sagrada Familia will be the tallest church in the world with a total of 170 meters high when the work is complete. It is estimated that the Church is completed in 2026.
The construction of the temple has been, and hopes to continue to be, funded exclusively by private donations and temple entrance fees and receives more than 3 million visitors each year.
The Sagrada Familia stands out for a advanced structural engineering which uses geometry so that structures stand ‘naturally’. He mainly used 3 types of architectural forms:
Helicoids: The spiral shape of the stairs common in conch shells is especially used. Also called ‘cycles of curved spatiality’.
Hyperboloids: Refers to the rotation of hyperbolas in one of their axes of symmetry. For example in the Basilica of Brasilia.
Hyperbolic paraboloids.
See also Family.