The day after a tram on line 30 ended his life on Gran Via - Bailèn, Antoni Gaudí began his journey to the altar. "A saint has died in Barcelona!" he posted. The Voice of Catalonia, and all the newspapers of the time filled him with praise such as "the unique monk of a unique monastery" where he resided with "medieval humility." A crowd accompanied his coffin. Although the twisted forms of Modernisme were unbearable for the Noucentista tastes of the time ("Gaudí's genius has excluded him from his time," wrote Francesc Folguera), his contemporaries were aware of the genius of Gaudí's work. The great Francesc Pujols said in the New Magazine"Give him bricklayers and laborers, stone and cement, and the purse that rings if Barcelona is good, and let him do it, because he already knows what you're up to."
That Pope Francis has now signed the document that places Gaudí on the path to sainthood is an internal matter of the Catholic Church and its protocols, and it makes perfect sense, because Gaudí is an effective propagandist. Since global tourism discovered Barcelona, thousands of people enter a church every day. They enter attracted by what they have seen on the outside and leave even more impressed by the forest and the light they have seen within. It is impossible not to be curious to know who the genius was who imagined that cathedral. A future canonization of Gaudí might not bring more people to the Sagrada Família, but sainthood carries a special popular burden, and the Church, which knows its future is long overdue, will not let this opportunity slip away.
