Sculptor Dimitri Hadzi (1921-) was born in New York, and was for a long time a member of St. Paul's. He was commissioned by the Vestry to make the bronze doors on Via Nazionale (dedicated on 18 April 1977) as a tribute to the growing spirit of ecumenism and religious discussion that grew out of the Anglo-Catholic discussions of the 1960's. The doors are thus symbolic of the modern dialogue begun in Rome between two great streams of Christianity.

In the tradition of Italy, where church doors have symbolized, taught and glorified the message of Christendom for fifteen centuries, the doors of St. Paul's have a special concept to present. The brilliant art of Lorenzo Ghiberti, who brought the Bible vividly to life for Florentines of the early Renaissance, the rougher 12th century sculptor of San Zeno Major in Verona, or today's Giacomo Manzù, whose great doors of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome are an enduring and tender biographic statement of Pope John Paul XXIII, are illustrative examples of the great Italian tradition. The works of the artists, and scores of others, relate as representational art - as portrayals of events and people in a cultural setting. The message of St. Paul's Doors has sprung instead from the composite global record of a fragmented Church, now reaching for the ideal of Christian unity. The theme is thus an abstract of religious history and of prayerful hope for the People of God. It would present a major conceptual problem for any artist.

Intellectual concepts can be symbolized, but many accepted symbols expressing the Church's past are prejudiced by the cultures in which they grew historically. In today's world, what would best represent Christendom's modern progression from disintegration to integration should itself be liberated from a haunting past. An abstract presentation was demanded, fresh and free, within a recognizable universal canon of sculptural art. The theme of the doors itself defined its mode of expression.