Man with a Mission

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On Sunday Beltran took me to Mejorada del Campo just south of Madrid to see a Cathedral that Justo Gallego is building. OH MY GOSH!! very very impressive the guy has done an unbelievable amount of work all for the love of the Virgin Mary. Justo was studying to be a priest in the 1940´s when he encountered turberculious and had to leave the monastery. All his life he has been in awe of the Virgin Mary and wanted to build a chapel in her honor, then he thought why not a cathedral. So he bought books on "How to build your very own Cathedral", one of the early releases of Timelife Books; never did sell very well. I think you can still purchase a set at Klindts Bookstore, Phillip cornered the market on Cathedral building books based on Bob´s predictions on the resurgence of cathedral construction.

Anyway Justo set out to build not only a cathedral but a whole Holy Compound. He started in 1966 when he was 40 years old and still works six days a week at the age of 81. His father left him some land, he sold part of it and has been building on the rest. He has done most of it by himself with a little help from a nephew now and then, and to make it even more impossible its all in his head. No architect drawning, no plans just all in Justo´s head, he has to be able to see the finish cathedral and what supports are need in the walls in his minds eye every step of the way, totally amazing. And he is doing it with all recycled material, it will be a green cathedral, and donations.

As Beltran and I walked through it I was spell bound, I kept saying look what he did here or what he did there. We walked up one of the towers and the walls melted slowly away till there was only metal rods around us, it felt like the steps were our only support in the sky. The government engineers had to come and inspect the structure for safety reasons and it passed with no problems.

Justa is like a modern day Noah building an ark, what would the neighbors say. "what you doing Justo?" "Oh just building a cathedral to honor the Virgin Mary" I bet he got some strange looks at the begining of the project. Enjoy the pictures.

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Photos

Cathedral
Cathedral street entrance

Cathedral
Cathedral front entrance

Rectory
Rectory off front of cathedral

Rectory
West side of Rectory

Rectory
No roof on rectory yet

Rectory
Basement and ceiling construction, all used materials

Rectory
Inside rectory

Court yard
Court yard looking at rectory

Court yard
Court yard

Cathedral
Court yard view of cathedral

Chapel
Chapel on side of cathedral

Chapel
Faces of saints that will be incorporated into the walls of the chapel

Cathedral
Looking through the cathedral

Cathedral
Arch inside cathedral

Cathedral
Inside cathedral dome

Cathedral
Dome of cathedral