Last week, days before his death, Pope Francis venerated the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí i Cornet (1852–1926), putting him closer to sainthood. Gaudí is best known as the designer of Sagrada Família, the fantastic, unique, and nearly finished church in Barcelona. He’s now deemed heroic in adhering to the Seven Virtues — faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance.
Though skeptical of saints as intercessors, I do believe in miracles. I wouldn’t pray to one to win the Lotto. I’d go straight to Jesus for the magic numbers. I also like seeing artists in the headlines. They’re a good lot. And saints such as Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa, and John the Baptist are to be studied and revered. The next step for Gaudí, called God’s Architect in his lifetime and a genuinely pious man, is beatification. This means that Vatican vetters have ascribed one miracle to him. If a second miracle is found, and if in all other respects he continues to prove godly, Gaudí is up for sainthood. It’s the pope’s decision. In my Methodist opinion, Sagrada Família, melding Art Nouveau, Gothic Revival, and tutti-frutti color, is a miracle of greater magnitude than curing someone’s gout. Fra Angelico (1395–1455) was beatified in 1982, in part, Pope John Paul II said, for the serene beauty of his paintings depicting Mary, Jesus’s mother.
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