Pope honors Barcelona's sacred monuments on death centenary of Sagrada Familia designer Gaudí
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Pope Leo XIV honored Barcelona’s most sacred and beautiful monuments Wednesday by first leading a noontime prayer at a mountain-top abbey, hours before he was due to give an evening Mass at the famed Sagrada Familia Basilica on the centenary of the death of its architect, Antoni Gaudí.
The celebration of Barcelona's Christian traditions, past and present, marked the highlight of Leo's weeklong visit to Spain, the first by a pope in 15 years to a once staunchly-Catholic European country that like many others has experienced secularizing trends.
The trip, though, has underscored how the country of 50 million people, which experienced a religious crisis after its 20th-century dictatorship ended, still has plenty of faithful Catholics who have turned out in droves to welcome the American pope.
Leo celebrated their centuries-old tradition of popular piety by praying at Montserrat, a mountain complex outside the city that is dear to many Catalans. The complex, which includes an 11th-century Benedictine abbey and a 16th-century basilica, is revered for its Black Madonna statue and is home to a boy's choir that has existed since the 13th century and is Europe's oldest.
Thousands of faithful arrived early at the monastery, with groups of nuns and schoolchildren singing and waving signs and photographs of the pope outside the basilica. Bells rang out over the spire-like rock formations that top Montserrat and the valley below as Leo arrived in a golf cart.
In his remarks to the faithful in the abbey, Leo said that Montserrat for centuries has been a place of peace and reconciliation in a world marked by violence, “criticism that humiliates, condemnation that destroys and aggression that divides.” He urged Spaniards to follow in the “path of mercy, reconciliation, truth and gentleness.”
In recent years, the Montserrat abbey has faced numerous accusations from survivors of clergy sexual abuse and was included in the Spanish ombudsman’s 800-page report on the crisis in 2023. The report found 15 victims and three alleged perpetrators linked to the abbey.
“It’s very painful because there are members of the church who committed errors,” said the Rev. Cesario Escarda, a Toledo priest, as he waited for Leo at the abbey. “What the pope wants to do is shine a light on the truth and ask forgiveness and bring in the victims and listen to them and accompany them.”
The highlight of Leo’s visit was expected to be his Mass on Wednesday evening in Barcelona at Sagrada Familia. The Mass commemorates the 100th anniversary of the death of its designer, Gaudí, who died at age 73 three days after he was hit by a tram.
A century after construction began during the pontificate of Leo’s namesake, Pope Leo XIII, the basilica has become one of the world’s most visited but unfinished monuments, annually drawing upward of 5 million visitors a year.
Gaudí, the famed Catalan architect who is on the path to possible sainthood, spent four decades designing and building the temple as the summary of the Christian faith carved in stone. The most important stories of Jesus’ life, the Nativity and Passion, are etched into the basilica’s east and west facades. A third facade facing south, the Glory, will serve as the basilica’s main entrance when finished.
The temple is an architectural and geometrical masterpiece inside and out, a celebration in form and symbol of Christianity and God’s creation through stone and light, based on the architectural tradition of Byzantine and Gothic churches.
A total of 18 sandcastle spires rise up from the top and pierce Barcelona’s skyline: 12 to symbolize Christ’s 12 apostles, four for each of the four Evangelists who recorded Christ’s life in the Gospels, one topped with a star over the apse honoring the Virgin Mary and, tallest among them, the Tower of Jesus Christ.
When the final Christ tower was finished last year at a height of 172½ meters (564 feet), it made Sagrada Familia the world’s tallest church. Leo will formally consecrate the tower on Wednesday night.
The cross-shaped interior, with the altar at the apse, is an homage to light and nature. Treelike columns soar to the sky, colored by constantly changing light filtered through stained glass windows like the sun poking through leaves in a forest.
“Nature is my teacher,” Gaudí once said. “Everything comes from the great book of nature, always open that we must read.”
The colors of the window glass have meaning: The blues and greens of the eastern portal windows, where the facade depicts Christ’s birth, look more joyful and are most brilliant when the sun rises and light passes through. The coarser shades of red and orange, illuminated by the setting sun on the western portals, color the side of the basilica that depicts Christ’s Passion. Behind the altar and above the cross are yellows and gold that glimmer in the noonday sun.
Historian Mònica Santín, who leads tours of the basilica, said that in designing Sagrada Familia, Gaudí was guided by two books: the Gospels and nature.
“The way he lets in the natural light is also an invitation to the Christian mystery,” she said, citing the three facades depicting Christ’s birth, death and glory.
“And when you enter inside, it is all light,” Santín said. “What is that the symbol of? We can’t see God, but we perceive his light all around us. I think that is how you can read this message, and it is fascinating.”
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