Antoni Gaudi, architect of Barcelona’s still-unfinished Sagrada Familia basilica, was declared “Venerable” Monday, close to Catholic sainthood.
Gaudi, who died in 1926, is buried in the uniquely designed church, which was consecrated as a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
The pontiff’s successor, Pope Francis, put Gaudi on the verge of sainthood due to the religious motivation behind his architecture.
“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,” the Holy See said in an article in Vatican News.
Gaudi intended the Sagrada Familia to be a “Bible in stone,” the basilica’s website explained in a release on Gaudi’s new status.
The Vatican also noted the virtues Gaudi lived by in his personal life.
“In his last period, his interior journey reached its peak, nourished by an austere, chaste, monastic life, centered on prayer, penance and rigorous fasting. … He was a convinced and practicing Christian, assiduous to the sacraments, who offered to God the fruits of his work intended as a mission to make people known and closer to God and made art a hymn of praise to the Lord,” the Vatican said in its decree of Gaudi’s new status as translated from Italian.
Gaudi was previously declared a “Servant of God,” with the cause for his canonization opened in 2003, according to the Catholic News Agency. The Archbishop of Barcelona submitted an argument in his favor in 2023.
The next step in the process, beatification, would require proof that a miracle was attributable to his intercession, and he would become known as “Blessed,” per the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
From there, canonization as a saint would require proof of a second miracle or a waiver from the pope, according to the BBC.
Gaudi took over the construction of the Sagrada Familia in 1883, though it remained unfinished at his death and to this day. The construction board hoped to complete the project by 2026, but that was derailed by COVID-19.
