The sculptor who found faith in building the Sagrada Familia

The portico of the Charity of the Sagrada Familia has had since July 16 the first of the four doors that will make up the Nativity Façade and will recreate the birth of Jesus in the middle of nature. Made of bronze, it has a height of 7 m. x 3 m. wide. Leaves, squash blossoms and lily flowers as well as different insects are the main compositional elements of this first door.

Behind this work is Etsuro SotooJapanese sculptor and sculptor who leads the construction of the Sagrada Família and whose completion date is still uncertain. "Gaudí said it: "Our Lord is in no hurry".

Born in Fukoka (Japan), Etsuro Sotoo was working at the University of Kyoto when he decided to take a sabbatical year to travel around Europe and to study the "origins of stone". In Barcelona he discovered Gaudi through the Holy Family.

He was seduced as soon as he saw it. As best as he could, he spun a few words in Spanish and asked those responsible for the construction of the temple to at least allow him to "pick at the stone". More than 37 years have passed since then, and today he says that by learning the story of Jesus in stone and metal, he has been able to tell his own story. own soul was transformed.

"I wanted understanding Gaudí -but no matter how much I studied him, I could not fully understand him (...) So I decided to look in the direction in which he was looking. (...) To look properly in the same direction as he was looking. Gaudi it is necessary to take the same position, that is to say, faith".

Sotoo, who asked for baptism in 1989After his conversion, he says that his way of working has not changed, but it is "easier and safer. Faced with the incessant work of carving structures, he humbly confesses nthat God has also chiseled his family. "Without knowing anything and without forcing her to do anything, my wife started catechesis and converted to Catholicism about four years ago. She was a very strong Buddhist. When our daughter was 7 years old, she was baptized.... I am very happy because from Gaudi I have seen Truth, faith and love".

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