#182 - Church of St. John of God

With the growth of Arroios north of Lisbon at the beginning of the 50s was necessary to establish new parishes. Only in Arroios in the census of 1950, had 70 966 souls. Cardinal Cerejeira, Patriarch of Lisbon, decreed the establishment of new parishes: Santa Joana Princesa, Santa Tereza, today Twelve Apostles, Holy Angel of Portugal, John the Evangelist and St. John of God, among others. Built without sacrifices of parishioners, the money came in substantial part, the compensation from the state for the demolition of the church at Relief in Martim Moniz.

António Lino was the architect chosen to take the project forward. Through its traces, Anthony Lino has reconciled the beauty with sobriety, the monumental with the functional. Still surrounding the work with names that are famous today in the recent history of Lisbon, Portugal. Names such as the engineer Richard Leopoldo da Mota, the sculptors Leopoldo de Almeida and Soares Branco, the ceramist Jorge Barradas and painter Domingos Rebelo.
At the time of construction, Anthony Lino explained his desire to bring the faithful of the altar, winning the compulsory removal that existed in relation to the assembly, which has been amended only a decade after the Second Vatican Council.
On March 8, 1953, Avenida of Rome, Square, London, with the blessing of Cardinal Cherry, was born a "giant parish".[*]

The entry of the main door is enriched with sculptures, laden with significance, the authors of the master Leopoldo de Almeida: Archangel San Rafael (which God healed) John of God (patron of hospitals and patients) and the apostle John the Evangelist, represented the eagle (one of the four evangelists).
The project's original church was amended to be greater rapprochement between the believers.
'Thus, the three ships converging on a common point that if you have found the tabernacle, tripled the desired approach, not far away in the last assistants, and benefiting all in the visibility and hearing A. Lino