The Vatican has recognized the ‘heroic virtues’ of ‘God’s architect’ Antoni Gaudi, the creator of Barcelona’s Sagrada Família basilica, in the first step of process that would culminate in his sainthood.
Gaudi has long been venerated by many who point to his piety and the religious symbolism woven ‘through his soaring spires, colorful ceramics and undulating lines’.
The Guardian reported:
“Now it seems the Vatican may be ready to make it official. It said on Monday that Antoni Gaudí, the Catalan architect behind Barcelona’s Sagrada Família basilica, had been put on the path to sainthood.
The Vatican said in a statement that Pope Francis had recognized Gaudí’s “heroic virtues” during the 88-year-old’s first official appointment after weeks of illness with life-threatening pneumonia.”
It’s been nearly a century since Gaudí’s death, and this declaration marks the initial stage in the process towards sainthood.
Gaudi will have to first be beatified before he can pass to the last step of canonization.
Many point to how the awe-inspiring Sagrada Família had helped convert many to Catholicism.
“’There are no serious obstacles’, the architect and then-president of the Gaudí Beatification Society, José Manuel Almuzara said in 2003. He described the society as a movement of 80,000 people worldwide who prayed to Gaudí, beseeching him to perform miracles.”
The Catholic church has begun considering his canonization in the early 2000s.
“Construction of the Sagrada Família began in 1882. More than 140 years later, it remains the largest unfinished Roman Catholic church in the world, despite Gaudí devoting the last 12 years of his life to the project.
Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the building in 2010, when he praised ‘the genius of Antoni Gaudí in transforming this church into a praise to God made of stone’.”
In an audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorized the promulgation of the Decrees concerning Gaudi and other these five people — moving them on the path to sainthood.
Vatican News reported:
“Born in 1852, Antoni Gaudí i Cornet accepted the task of directing the project of the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona in 1883. His focus was making art a hymn of praise to the Lord and he considered it his mission to make God known and bring people closer to Him.
On June 7, 1926, he was struck by a tram. Not recognized, he was taken to the Hospital de la Santa Creu, the city’s hospital for the poor. After receiving the last sacraments, he died three days later, on June 10. Around 30,000 people attended his funeral.”
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