Ex-Monk’s Lifelong Obsession
MEJORADA DEL CAMPO, Spain — Justo Gallego recently dug his own grave, literally, in the crypt of the church he has been building here, brick by brick, since the early 1960s.
Mr. Gallego, 91, also switched dwellings, moving from the nearby home of some relatives to the more spartan surroundings of his selfmade temple. He wants to make certain he will die in the place that has become his life’s mission.
“This is where my vocation has taken me and this is where I’m prepared to suffer, just as Jesus Christ taught us to suffer for others,” said Mr. Gallego, as he threw wood onto a stove by his rudimentary bedroom, next to the altar, where he sleeps on a plank without a mattress.
Mr. Gallego might be ready to confront death, but some residents worry about his extraordinary project without him.
Mr. Gallego has never received a building permit or any public financing, but he has managed to erect a striking landmark in this town of 23,000 on the outskirts of Madrid. His ambitious undertaking is labeled the “Cathedral of Faith” on internet maps. It has received no official backing from officials of the Catholic Church. Flanked by two cloisters and crowned by an unfinished 38-meter-tall cupola, it attracts tourists.
“This man has built something incredible against all odds and turned it into a symbol of our town,” said Victor Morillo, a resident. “The Town Hall should have done a lot more to help and should certainly not allow anything bad to happen to this cathedral after he dies.”
Mr. Gallego joined a monastery at 27, but was ordered to leave after he caught tuberculosis and risked contaminating the other monks.
After recovering, Mr. Gallego decided to turn a family plot into a place of worship. He said his project was motivated in part by his desire to make amends for what he witnessed during the Spanish Civil War. During the war, “I saw the Communists destroy all the churches here, with people laugh- ing and dancing in the ruins,” he said. “But when you believe, you can then also rebuild with your own hands a beautiful new place.”
Mr. Gallego has put up most of the church himself, using recycled material ranging from food tins to discarded bricks. He has financed his work by selling family farmland.
While some have wondered about Mr. Gallego’s mental health, his supporters dispute there’s anything unhealthy about his obsession.
“Do you really think somebody mad could have built something like this?” said Pablo Cantuel Gallego, a nephew, 64.
Mr. Gallego does have one trusted assistant, Ángel López, who said that he would take over the works when Mr. Gallego died.
Mr. Gallego, has no timetable and not even a single sketch of his cathedral project.“The only plan is made in my head, drawn day by day,” he said.