During his pontificate, Benedict XVI visited Spain as often as he did his native Germany. With three apostolic trips, this country — marked by Catholic tradition, but also by sometimes aggressive secularization — was the subject of particular attention from the German pontiff, who was a Spanish speaker.
In Barcelona, he even alternated between two languages, Catalan and Spanish, when he delivered a remarkable homily during the consecration Mass of the Holy Family (Sagrada Familia) Basilica on November 7, 2010.
Benedict XVI called this basilica, still under construction, a “magnificent achievement of engineering, art and faith.” He paid tribute to all those who had worked on this unique project, renewing the epic tradition of the cathedral builders who marked European history over the centuries.
“We remember of course the man who was the soul and the artisan of this project, Antoni Gaudí, a creative architect and a practising Christian who kept the torch of his faith alight to the end of his life, a life lived in dignity and absolute austerity,” Benedict XVI explained at the time.
A project guided by Providence
“I have been moved above all by Gaudí’s confidence when, in the face of many difficulties, filled with trust in divine Providence, he would exclaim, ‘Saint Joseph will finish this church.’ So it is significant that it is also being dedicated by a Pope whose baptismal name is Joseph,” Benedict XVI said with a sensitivity that brought a smile to the audience, which included the King and Queen of Spain.
“In this place, Gaudí desired to unify that inspiration which came to him from the three books which nourished him as a man, as a believer and as an architect: the book of nature, the book of sacred Scripture, and the book of the liturgy,” explained the successor of John Paul II.
The Polish pontiff had visited the basilica 28 years earlier, on that same date: November 7, 1982.
The Catalan architect “brilliantly helped to build our human consciousness, anchored in the world yet open to God, enlightened and sanctified by Christ,” emphasized the German pontiff.
He explained that he found in Gaudí concerns that were also his own: “overcoming the division between human consciousness and Christian consciousness, between living in this temporal world and being open to eternal life, between the beauty of things and God as beauty.”
An austere life and contemporary disciples
In 1883, at the age of only 31, Gaudí was entrusted with the construction of the Holy Family church. He remained unmarried all his life, and led an austere life, to the point of nearly dying in 1894 due to extreme fasting. On June 7, 1926, he was hit by a tram in Barcelona.
Unidentified, he was taken to the Santa Creu hospital, considered the capital's hospital for the poor. He died there on June 10 after receiving the last rites, uttering these last words: “My God, my God!”
Some 30,000 people took part in his funeral procession through the city. He is now buried in the Chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in the crypt of the Basilica of the Holy Family.
Antoni Gaudí devoted more than 40 years of his life to the construction of the basilica with its 18 towers, a monumental project covering more than 48,000 square feet. It’s considered an architectural masterpiece, but is still unfinished. However, its completion is scheduled for 2026, on the centenary of its designer's death.
Benedict XVI's connection with Gaudí was also evident when Japanese sculptor Etsurō Sotoo, born in Fukuoka in 1953, became the first Asian to receive the Ratzinger Prize in 2024, awarded since 2011 to personalities from the cultural and academic world.
A graduate in Fine Arts from Kyoto University, the artist was deeply moved by a visit to the Holy Family construction site in Barcelona in 1978, an experience that led him to be baptized into the Catholic faith. He contributed to the construction of this basilica as a sculptor, following the instructions left by Antoni Gaudí, whose cause for beatification he actively supports.
