"God, our Father, who inspired your servant Antoni Gaudí, architect, with a great love for your Creation (...) Grant me success in fulfilling my task and deign to glorify your servant Antoni, by granting me, through his intercession, the grace that I ask of you (state your request). Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen."
There is a detective series from Spain, City of Shadows, in which the grisly murders occur at various buildings in Barcelona designed by the visionary architect, Antoni Gaudi. One of those buildings is featured in the poster above. It's a great premise and we watched a couple of episodes but the torture and subtitles got to us.
I have written about Gaudi more than once in relation to the Sagrada Familia church, a building begun in 1885 and nearing completion more than a century later. The plan is to consecrate the church some time in 2026.
This year is also the 100th anniversary of the death of Gaudi and there is hope that this year a decades long effort to recognize Gaudí as a saint of the Roman Catholic church will be realized. Another architect, Jose Manuel Almuzara describes Gaudi as the "architect of God" and hands out cards with a photograph of Gaudi on one side and the prayer above on the other.
Antoni Gaudi
The Vatican declared Gaudi "venerable" last year, so it may happen. While my respect for the architect wouldn't be increased or diminished by a designation of sainthood I do feel that his creativity was God-given, but I think this of a lot of artists, whether they are sacred or secular in intentions.
I do appreciate the Vatican's description of Gaudi:
Born in 1852, Antoni Gaudí i Cornet accepted the task of directing the project of the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona in 1883. His focus was making art a hymn of praise to the Lord and he considered it his mission to make God known and bring people closer to Him.
Inside Sagrada Familia
No comments:
Post a Comment