Last year, shortly before his death, Pope Francis declared that famed Barcelona architect Antoni Gaudí had displayed “heroic virtues,” a key step in efforts to elevate the city’s best-known modernist to sainthood.
For decades the Diocese of Barcelona and an advocacy group of civic leaders, the Association for the Beatification of Antoni Gaudí, have been making the case for the creator of Sagrada Familia, who is often called “God’s architect.” The Vatican began a formal review in 2003, after advocates produced a 2,000-page positio, with studies and documents supporting the application.
