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Architect Antoni Gaudí takes next step to sainthood.
Words: Dan Hayes
O ne of the last acts of the late Pope Francis was to declare the architect Antoni Gaudí “Venerable”, the second step on the path to canonisation (recognition as a saint).
Gaudí, best known for the Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, was honoured for the “heroic virtues” he had shown during his life.
“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 Vatican News website reported.
The next step to sainthood requires a miracle to be “recognised as happening through [the individual’s] posthumous intercession”. After this the person is beatified and called “Blessed”, one step away from recognition as a saint.
Gaudí has been a candidate for sainthood since the early 1990s, with a dedicated body (Associació Canònica Antoni Gaudí) promoting his case for the honour.
The archbishop of Barcelona, Cardinal Juan Jose Omella, told the AFP news agency that the latest move was a recognition not only of Gaudí’s architectural work but also “something more important”.
The cardinal added: “He is saying you... amid life’s difficulties, amid work, amid pain, amid suffering, are destined to be saints.”
Born in 1852, Gaudí began work on the Sagrada Familia in 1883 after its first architect retired.