Masses and solace within. Built in the 1300s. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, as a young travelling pilgrim sojourned in Barcelona and begged for alms at this basilica in 1524 and 1525. Oh hell. Johnny went in. The immense Catalan Gothic church felt even larger inside, majestic yet intimate. Cozy, ethereal, in touch with el cielo and la calle.
There was that nook he’d visited, times past: the very spot where Loyola was a local beggar six hundred years ago. I mean, man, Johnny thought, the engraved stone honouring Loyola – Iñigo – in one of the steps up to the saint’s alcove was itself a hundred and fifty years old.
There was a new sculpture of Loyola in the nook, done in a green-grey stone. Loyola, sitting on a simple narrow wooden bench, big right hand open, lef
