It’s not a new rumor, but now it does seem closer than ever. For decades now there has been speculation about the sanctification of Antoni Gaudi, the most famous Catalan in the world and now also the closest to heaven.
Pope Francis has declared Antoni Gaudí, the architect of the Sagrada Familia , “venerable”. With this, the Pope recognizes his “heroic virtues” and takes the first step in the long process of being canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church.
What has to happen for Saint Gaudí to exist?
Recognition as venerable makes Gaudi a “venerable servant of God,” a title given to deceased persons whose lives are considered exemplary for their faith and dedication.
After this, the next step would be beatification, for which confirmation of a miracle attributed to his intercession is required. After that, a second miracle should be demonstrated, and then he could be canonized and become a saint.
A journey that has been going on for 30 years
The process already began in 1992, promoted by the Association for the Beatification of Antoni Gaudí, led by the architect José Manuel Almuzara. Years later, the cardinal and archbishop of Barcelona, Juan José Omella, reinforced the momentum by creating the Canonical Association for his cause.
The final breakthrough came in 2023, when the Canonical Association presented the “positio” – the key dossier arguing for the candidate’s sainthood – to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican. The document highlights Gaudí as a “man of faith,” a “great observer of nature” and a “universal figure of modern architecture” whose Christian witness is imprinted in his work, especially in the Sagrada Familia.
During his visit to Barcelona in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI – who consecrated the Sagrada Familia – had already defined Gaudí as a “brilliant architect and coherent Christian”. On that occasion, the pontiff highlighted how the architect “overcame the fracture between human conscience and Christian faith, between earthly life and openness to the eternal, between the beauty of the world and God as the source of all beauty”.
Now, with the official recognition of his heroic virtues, God’s architect is one step closer to becoming a saint and, who knows, perhaps his appointment will coincide with the end of the construction of the Sagrada Familia, in what would be an incredible sign of the great coincidences (or of the Christian faith, depending on how you want to look at it).