“God’s Architect” Antoni Gaudí Could Be Made a Saint

Answering the prayers of many after over 30 years, Pope Francis has officially initiated the sainthood process for the late Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí after declaring him venerable on Monday, April 14. Nicknamed “God’s Architect” for his piety, Gaudí was greatly influenced by Christianity and nature, infusing motifs from both in his designs for the Sagrada Familia basilica and several other internationally renowned sites across Barcelona.

Pope Francis acknowledged the architect’s “heroic virtues” in the Monday decree outlining Gaudí’s new venerable status (the first step in the path to sainthood), just about a year out from the centenary of his untimely death in a tram accident in June 1926. In addition to his devout faith, Gaudí is known for promoting Catalan identity, artistry, and culture through his architectural projects and was regarded as the lead exponent of Catalan Modernisme.

Some of Gaudí’s most famous contributions to Barcelona include the Parque Güell, the Palau Güell mansion, the Casa Mila (also known as La Pedrera for its stony appearance), the Casa Vicens, and the skeletal Casa Batlló. Each of the aforementioned spaces evokes Gaudí’s fascination with biomorphic shapes of the natural world in conjunction with other influences, such as Persian and Islamic architecture and the Gothic Revival, perpetually embedding his legacy into the fiber of the Spanish capital city’s culture.

Gaudí took over as the lead architect of the Sagrada Familia basilica in 1884, only two years after the structure’s construction began, and radically changed its original neo-Gothic design entirely toward Modernisme. Despite working on simultaneous projects, Gaudí devoted over 40 years of his life to developing the massive basilica, leaning further and further into an ascetic lifestyle as he got older.

He was struck by a tram on his daily walk to confession in 1926 and died within days from his injuries at a hospital as he lived a notably ascetic life and was mistaken for an unhoused person and did not carry any identification on him at the time.

The architect was entombed in the crypt of towering Sagrada Familia, and the structure, though actively in use, remains incomplete today — however, there’s an expected completion date slated for 2026.

Acknowledging the architect’s devotion to God, Catholic laypeople began advocating for Gaudí’s sainthood in the early 1990s, formally developing the Gaudí Beatification Association in 1992. The cause for his canonization was opened with the Vatican in 2003.