Antoni Gaudí never seems to be far from the headlines. In 2026 there were events marking 100 years since the Catalan architect died, while the Sagrada Família cathedral reached its final architectural height. Last year, Pope Francis had authorised a decree declaring him “venerable”, the first steps towards becoming a saint. Next up: beatification. At this stage you need to prove that the person had a life filled with heroic values, a saintly reputation and was responsible for one or two miracles along the way (maybe curing tourists’ sore knees after traipsing up all the steps at Barcelona’s Park Güell?). To be frank, you would have hoped that the creation of the Sagrada Família, 144 years in the making, might have been enough to swing a sainthood.

While this might be one of the most exclusive clubs in the world, surely there’s the potential to advance swiftly the occasional candidate? The Pope is perhaps mindful of the fact that while Gaudí was an incredibly devout Catholic, a man who remained single all his life and who put his body through intense and lengthy fasts to display his commitment to God, he was, after all, an architect. Now it’s not impossible but it’s quite hard to be an architect and remain, well, saintly, at all times. Builders, meddling planners and ill-informed critics all tend to every now and then push these sensitive souls over the emotional edge. Peter Stanford, an esteemed writer on Catholicism, has indeed suggested that perhaps Gaudí is too complex and rich of a figure to be moved along the conveyor belt to sainthood. “[Sainthood] reflects an extraordinary life of religious devotion, and that clearly was a very important part of him, but it puts him in too small a box,” he says. “In terms of people who could be in the biggest box possible or no box at all, Gaudí seems to me to be a very good example because his imagination knew no boundaries.”

There is also the question of whether Gaudí would have wanted this. Because someone upstairs was neglecting his needs when, in 1926, he was run over by a tram and killed while walking to church. In the end, however, it matters little whether he is made an official saint, because already people are enraptured, mesmerised, by his work, making pilgrimages to see Casa Vicens and Casa Milà, and witnessing a true miracle, the Sagrada Família. “God’s architect” has already become a people’s saint.

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