He has long been called the “architect of God,” and his venerable and religious imagery is woven through his soaring spires, colorful pottery and undulating lines.
Now it appears the Vatican is ready to make it official. On Monday, Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, behind the Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona, said he was placed on the path to saint.
The Vatican said in a statement that Pope Francis recognized Gaudi’s “heroic virtue” during his first official appointment at the age of 88 after weeks of illness of life-threatening pneumonia.
Gaudi’s followers called on him to be named a saint for over 30 years.
Almost a century after Gaudi’s death, this declaration is one of the first steps in a long, complicated process aimed at the saint. The architects behind some of Barcelona’s biggest tourist attractions must beat before moving on to the final step of canonization.
Gaudi followers have pointed out that he was called to be nominated as a saint for over 30 years, and that Sagrada Familia’s fantasy spires and intricate stonework have persuaded him to convert to Catholicism.
“There are no serious obstacles,” the architect and president of Gaudi’s Bliss Society said in 2003. He said it was a movement of 80,000 people from around the world who prayed to Gaudi and prayed for miracles.
Workers will complete the spire of the Virgin Mary of Sagrada Familia in 2021.
The church began to consider the demands in the early 2000s.
Construction of the Sagrada Familia began in 1882. More than 140 years later, despite dedicating the last 12 years of his life to the project, he remains the world’s largest unfinished Roman Catholic Church.
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Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the building in 2010, praised “the genius of Antoni Gaudi in turning this church into a praise of God made of stone.”
A few years later, it was announced that the basilica will be completed in 2026. This is the date coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death. However, the completion date was postponed indefinitely after the pandemic halted construction and reduced the revenues of tourists available to fund jobs.
