We are starting a travel devotional tour today. If you’ve never followed along on one of these, here’s how it works.
What’s a travel devotional?
For the next twelve days, we will travel through the Mediterranean mining the Christian history out of each destination and applying its lessons to our lives today. What we find will go into a post here, which will function as a devotional–not a typical devotional but a travel devotional.
So, in the 5-7 minutes it takes you to read each post, you will travel vicariously with us to a new destination each day, read some Christian history and the Bible and have a few laughs–all without ever leaving the comfort of your home.
We started this Mediterranean Travel Devotional in Barcelona, Spain.
What we found in Barcelona
If I had to describe Barcelona in one word, it would be surprising. I’ve been here twice now, and each time I’ve been more than pleasantly surprised. When I first visited in 2004, I had no expectations but ended up amazed by the architecture, especially Sagrada Familia.
We wanted to return to Sagrada Familia, but delayed flights and bad weather forced us to stay a little closer to home — this time at the Hotel Neri. As it turned out, we discovered something wonderful and new–well, actually, old: the Gothic Quarter.
The Gothic Quarter is named for its buildings, many of which were constructed in the 13th-15th centuries. But the history goes back much further. The Romans settled here between 15 and 10 BC during the reign of Augustus. Part of the 3rd century Roman walls remain, along with ruins from the Temple of Augustus.
After a short rest from 18 hours of travel, we set out late in the afternoon to explore this town once called “Barcino.”
The stone slab streets of the Gothic Quarter are for walkers only–in the 13th century Henry Ford had not been born yet. There are no gutters. No sidewalks. The edge of the street ends where the bordering stone buildings begin.
These narrow, high passages create a perpetual shade, but are not as effective against the rain, as we would find out on our walk. We walked through this stone maze of antiquity, wondering what sights we would find around the next corner, but we were also on a quest.
When we are looking for Christian history on these tours and nothing obvious presents itself, we start with early missionaries and martyrs. In Barcelona, it didn’t take long to find Eulalia.
Barcelona’s 13-year old martyr
Eulalia was born around 290 AD during the reign of the emperor Diocletian, whom you may recall from last summer’s travel devotional. He was responsible for what historians call the Great Persecution—not “great” because it was good but because it was widespread.
When persecution reached Barcino, young Eulalia confronted the Roman governor for mistreating Christians. The Romans arrested and tortured her, placing her in a barrel filled with knives and broken glass and rolling it down the street.
The Romans then crucified Eulalia on an X-shaped cross. She was thirteen years old.
Her remains now reside in a tomb beneath the altar at the Barcelona Cathedral—our first stop.
We tried to enter the cathedral but were directed to the ticket office across the square. Unfortunately, perhaps by necessity, many cathedrals in Europe have accepted they are now essentially museums. What Jesus bought with His blood, tourists now access with Euros.
Upon entering the cathedral, we made a line directly for the crypt, where the bones of our 4th century hero were kept. Her alabaster tomb is covered in carved reliefs depicting her arrest and defiance, torture, and her crucifixion. The tomb is elevated, sitting on eight stone columns—fitting for the 13-year old whom history holds up as an example for all Christians.
Unfortunately, the gate to the shrine was closed for professional photography. So we took a few pictures through the bars and moved on.
As we walked the nave, we came to the “Capella de Les Animes Del Purgatori” — the Chapel of the Souls in Purgatory. It was under construction. I kid you not. You can’t make this stuff up.
After leaving the cathedral, we walked the Gothic Quarter looking for the Biaxada de St. Eulalia—sometimes called the “Street of Torture,” where Eulalia was rolled down the hill in the barrel.
For some reason, ChatGPT, usually reliable for turn-by-turn directions, seemed utterly confused. Maybe it was hallucinating? Or maybe it’s not as good in stone mazes. Eventually I switched to Apple Maps and found it.
And get this — it was about 30-feet from the front door of our hotel. If we had turned right instead of left, we would have been standing on it.
Next, we visited Placa Sant Jaume, where the local government sits today, and where it sat 2,000 years ago, when a 13-year old Christian challenged the Roman Empire.
What the Romans didn’t understand
The Romans likely believed killing Eulalia would solve their problem. Instead, her courage became part of the foundation of the church in Barcelona.
What remains of Rome are fragments — some columns from the Temple of Augustus and sections of broken wall. In their place stands a cathedral. The Roman Empire is gone.
The kingdom of God is not.
The takeaway from today is simple: what we build for ourselves will be forgotten, but what we sow into the kingdom endures forever. It’s something we know with certainty but forget too casually:
In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. — Daniel 2:44
Two thousand years later, a teenage girl who refused to deny Christ is still shaping the story of this city.
Click here if you’d like to follow along on this travel devotional. I’ll be sending these posts out each day along with a few other insights from the trip. I’ll also send you my ebook, Discovering Your Calling.
Until tomorrow. GS
