GOD'S ARCHITECT

 

Earlier in the month (May 16)  we dealt with an American Benedictine architect, Father Michael McInerney, OSB.   Here is another builder, more well known, now up for canonizaton.  VENERABLE ANTONI GAUDI I CORNET, known to be a ground-breaking genius, is internationally recognized as one of the most prodigious experts in his discipline, as well as one of the top exponents of modernism. His building designs were a product of his intense Catholic faith, his dedication to Spanish culture, and his obsession with the structural logic of nature. He is known as "God's Architect".

He was born in 1852 in Reus, where his family spent their summers. He came from a family of boilermakers, a fact that allowed the young Antoni to acquire a special skill for working with space and volume as he helped his father and grandfather in the family workshop. His talent for designing spaces and transforming materials grew and prospered until it eventually metamorphosed into a veritable genius for three-dimensional creation.

 As a child, Antoni’s health was delicate, which meant that he was obliged to spend long periods of time resting at the summer house in Riudoms. There, he passed many an hour contemplating and storing up in his mind the secrets of nature, which he thought of as his supreme mistress and ultimate teacher of the highest knowledge, being the crowning achievement of the Creator.

In 1870 he moved to Barcelona to pursue his academic career in architecture, at the same time working at various jobs to enable him to pay for his studies. He was an inconsistent student, but he was already showing some evidence of brilliance that opened doors for him, allowing him to collaborate with some of his professors. When he completed his studies at the School of Architecture in 1878 the Director, Elies Rogent, declared: “I do not know if we have awarded this degree to a madman or to a genius; only time will tell.”  His  ideas were not a mere repetition of things that had already been done up to that time.

He began to receive more and more commissions and at the same time began a transformation of his old self. The man, who in his youth had frequented theatres, concerts and social gatherings, went from being a young dandy with gourmet tastes to neglecting his personal appearance, eating frugally and distancing himself from social life, while simultaneously devoting himself ever more fervently to God.

His masterpiece and best known is the Basílica de la Sagrada Família, also known as the Sagrada Família, which towers over the city of Barcelona. In 1883 was offered the task of designing and building the Church of the Holy Family, a project sponsored by a lay association and relying entirely on individual donations. He was, in some ways, a surprising choice. 

Though hailed as a creative genius whose work combined an eclectic range of styles, he was also something of a dandy. Yet he took on the project with almost single-minded dedication. The church became more and more ambitious. Incorporating inlaid ceramics, wrought iron, and original sculpture, it began to grow into an astonishing work of art—a reflection of the artist’s imagination but also, increasingly, a reflection of his growing faith.  

As his church began to take shape, Antoni grew closer to the One he called “the greatest master builder.” He adopted an ascetic life, dressing as a workman, fasting frequently, and attending daily Mass. While also designing many other buildings, Holy Family became his central work. In the last months of his life he slept on a cot in the church.

On June 7, 1926,on his way to Mass, he was struck by a streetcar. Mistaken for a beggar, he was taken to the charity ward of the local hospital, where he died on June 10.   His funeral was attended by many of the citizens of Barcelona who came to bid a final farewell to the most original architect that the city had ever raised up.

Though work on the Church of the Holy Family continues to this day, it has long been recognized as one of the world’s architectural treasures. In 1999 it was also named as a basilica. 

The church is an active basilica and was dedicated by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, 128 years after construction first began. "In this masterpiece, Gaudí shows us that God is the true measure of man; that the secret of authentic originality consists, as he himself said, in returning to one’s origin which is God. Gaudí, by opening his spirit to God, was capable of creating in this city a space of beauty, faith and hope which leads man to an encounter with him who is truth and beauty itself. The architect expressed his sentiments in the following words: “A church [is] the only thing worthy of representing the soul of a people, for religion is the most elevated reality in man”."

Nora Heimann, a professor of art history at The Catholic University of America in Washington, said that Gaudí’s canonization would bring many architects and artists joy to see one of the most renowned architects included in the canon of saints.

“God is the best artist of all, and I think artists like Gaudí that look to nature to find that beauty and then try and capture that beauty themselves in a completely innovative way. Even if you’re not religious, you feel a kind of sense of transcendence.”

                               Funeral Procession of Servant of God Antoni Gaudi

 

A MAN OF CLEAR IDEAS

 

POPE LEO ‘has the mentality of a mathematician’ and ‘knows how to govern,’ confrère says. 

In an interview with the Vatican newspaper, Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín, OSA, one of two undersecretaries of the General Secretariat of the Synod, shared his memories of the new Pope, with whom he worked at the Augustinian general curia beginning in 2008. (The future Pope was the Augustinian prior general from 2001 to 2013.)

 

The new Pope “is a man with very clear ideas,” said Bishop Marín. “He has the mentality of a mathematician and a canonist. He is extremely orderly, tireless in his work, thoughtful. He never makes decisions lightly. He meditates, reflects, and prays. He is a person who, faithful to the Augustinian style, always works in a team.”

 The prelate added:

He is a man who knows how to listen, he listens a lot and listens to different opinions. This does not mean that he agrees with all of them, but he listens to them and dialogues. He knows how to govern. He makes decisions, but always in a dialogical style.

 Turning to the topic of sexual abuse, Bishop Marín said that “he has always been by the victims’ side. Always. And he has scrupulously respected all the protocols. His way of proceeding has been irreproachable. He was one of the few who has always remained by the victims’ side.”

NEW MADONNA

 

 

May 18, Volodymyr Zelensky met with the new Holy Father, Pope Leo.

 “For many nations, the image of a mother and child is a symbol of life that must be protected. Today, we presented Pope Leo XIV with a special icon – the Holy Mother with the Infant - painted on a fragment of a crate used to store heavy artillery munitions, brought from near Izyum. This icon speaks of our children. Of those who have suffered from the war, who were deliberately abducted and deported by Russia, and who are very much awaited at home – in Ukraine. We pray for the lives of all our deported children and hope for the Vatican’s support in this matter, so that all of them, both the children and Ukrainian prisoners, can return home.”

BENEDICTINE ARCHITECT

 

I think many years ago, I did a Blog on the work of my great grandfather, who was a well- known architect and builder (he did the first “skyscraper” under Louis Sullivan) in St. Louis.  My father studied architecture in college and though he never set up a practice in Los Angeles, he designed houses for family and friends. My elder brother was very successful in the building trade, and like my father, very artistic. Because it is in my blood, I am always interested in good building and found this Benedictine monk, who designed Churches in the East, about the same time my great grandfather was working. The use of brick and stone were among similarities in their work.

FATHER MICHAEL  McINERNEY, O.S.B. was born in 1877 in Pennsylvania of Irish immigrants. His father was a stone contractor and at age 15 he was accepted as an apprentice to work under the architect W.A. Thomas of Pittsburgh.  Augmenting his training with studies at Duquesne University, the he quickly advanced and soon became a partner in the firm.   

(My great grandfather  who had immigrated from Germany at 17, owned the business by age 27 that he started to work in). Michael got his start as a teenager working as an assistant to his father and obviously had a love of stone.

 In the Holy Year 1900 Michael enrolled at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, intending to receive a  liberal arts education.  Soon after he arrived a fire ravaged through Robert Lee Stowe Hall built in 1898.  That fire of May 19, 1900 proved to be a turning point in his life and the life of the Abbey and College.  Michael volunteered his services to help with the interior reconstruction of the gutted building.  That was the beginning of his long career as architect of Catholic institutional buildings locally and beyond.

As with so many in religious life, we have plans and then God intervenes, calling us. Michael entered the monastery in 1902 and professed monastic vows in 1903.  He was ordained priest in 1907.  His designs were primarily for Catholic institutions that included approximately 200 churches, 27 hospitals, 18 convents or monasteries, 10 gymnasiums, and other projects as well.  His works were influenced and particularized by his love for monastic architecture.  He became known as "Father Michael of Belmont Abbey."

(Right: St. Michael's  Church in Gastonia, NC)

Trained in the medieval-revivalist style of his time, he brought to life churches and convents and church properties rich in architectural theology.  Father McInerney developed his own style that became known as "American Benedictine."  This was a red brick variation of the German Gothic Revival, named thus for its frequent use by monasteries. 

 Interior ornamentation was simple and austere.  Exterior ornamentation was intrinsic rather than appended as an afterthought.  His signature was a long-stemmed cross  that is customarily seen in many of his building exteriors; sometimes in bold relief while other times more subtly inscribed in the brickwork design.

(Left: Portico- Belmont Abbey)
His works are remembered for their imposing beauty and simplicity.  His first full creation, St. Leo Hall,  was designed by him as a seminarian and built in 1907.  The accomplishment won for him significant acclaim. The design he pioneered had a box shape that gains special distinction from its Gothic windows and the projection of the roof. 

The texturing of the brick and the shapes and sizes of the windows create a Benedictine feel.  This work as well as his other creations on the campus of his Alma Mater, Belmont College, helped establish the young monk-architect as a leading religious architect in Catholic circles.  

 Because of the poverty and minority of Catholics in the South, his works in the Carolinas centered on small chapels, but by the 1920's he had a national clientele and most of his large projects were out of state, including Maryland and West Virginia. 

Over time Father McInerney's style of design evolved, emphasized by a shift from brick to stone, from Gothic Revival to a striking conception of the Romanesque imposed on classically simple facades, to his own abbreviation of the the Art Deco, with a new economy of exterior line with a taste for flat roofs and squared towers, emphasizing the box form.  These later buildings had strikingly unornamented interiors whose art and expression proceeded from the structural design.  

The modest income he earned helped keep his Abbey solvent during the Great Depression.  As an artist he also designed altars, candlesticks, chalices, vestments, candelabra, sanctuary lamps, pews, and even grave markers.  As an artist he contributed many articles on the subject of church and institutional architecture, stained glass, and other related topics.  He served on the faculty of Belmont Abbey College and during the summer months he was an adjunct professor at St. Louis University in Missouri. (Did he come across my great grandfather?)

                     (Right: Sacred Heart Convent & Church)

According to local historian Father Pascal Baumstein, OSB:

"The Stained Glass Association of America and the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects granted him honorary memberships. In 1959, St. Vincent College of Pennsylvania awarded McInerney its doctorate (honoris causa) in recognition of his more than five hundred buildings, his 'devotion to ecclesiastical art, the sacrifices and labors of the priest and monk, and the economy of church funds [secured through] the endeavors of his artistic and architectural talents.' He is interred in the monastic cemetery at Belmont Abbey."

VOCATIONS AS A SIGN OF HOPE

 

            "Prayer", Jacob Lawrence, 1947- Whitney Museum of American Art, NY 

Tomorrow, May 11 the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is Mother’s Day and also the Church commemorates the 62nd World Day of Prayer for Vocations. It is important to remember that without priests, there would be no Eucharistic celeration, no partaking in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

 Pope St. Paul VI instituted the day of prayer in 1964 and placed it on the Sunday on which the Gospel of the Good Shepherd is read at Mass. 

The message for this day, was issued by the late Pope Francis on March 19, entitled “Pilgrims of Hope: The Gift of Life.” Following an introduction, the message has three brief sections, entitled “Embracing our specific vocation,” “Discerning our vocational path,” and “Accompanying vocations.”

 “The problem of having a sufficient number of priests,” Pope Paul stated in his message for the 1st World Day of Prayer for Vocations, “has an immediate impact on all of the faithful: not simply because they depend on it for the religious future of Christian society, but also because this problem is the precise and inescapable indicator of the vitality of faith and love of individual parish and diocesan communities, and the evidence of the moral health of Christian families.”

 “Wherever numerous vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life are to be found, that is where people are living the Gospel with generosity,” he added.

Pope Benedict’s prayer in 2013 with the theme "Vocations as a sign of Hope founded in Faith", especially addressed to young people, fits right in with Pope Francis' theme for  the Jubilee Year 2025 of HOPE:

I hope that young people, who are presented with so many superficial and ephemeral options, will be able to cultivate a desire for what is truly worthy, for lofty objectives, radical choices, service to others in imitation of Jesus. Dear young people, do not be afraid to follow him and to walk the demanding and courageous paths of charity and generous commitment! In that way you will be happy to serve, you will be witnesses of a joy that the world cannot give, you will be living flames of an infinite and eternal love, you will learn to “give an account of the hope that is within you” .

THE NEXT POPE?

 

Tomorrow, May 7, is a big day for Catholics the world around, as Cardinals vote to elect the next Pope. With all the hype in the media, it is as if we are choosing the next Derby winner, rather than the one who will lead us closer to Christ.

Bishop Robert Barron in an interview with EWTN this week, said the next pope should have Jesus at the center of his papacy.

 “I want someone who declares the resurrection of Jesus in a compelling way. Because that was Peter’s job, and this is the successor of Peter. I think to put the stress on the spiritual, on the evangelical, on the declaration of Jesus — that’s what matters.” 

 “The preoccupation with — oh, is he left-wing? Is he right-wing? Climate change, immigration — OK, we can get to all that, but the first thing I’d look for is a disciple, a believer in Jesus, and who has the capacity to proclaim the Resurrection in a compelling way, that’s the pope’s job, [and] to be a source of unity for the Church.”

While there are speculations as to whom it will be, we need to remember that two of our last Popes were completely unexpected...Pope (St. )John Paul and Pope Francis.  Will it be another non-Italian? We wait!

SERVANTS FROM THE SAME TOWN

 

 

How many places in the world today have three young people being considered for canonization- all from the same city? The Archdiocese of Paraná began the diocesan phase of its Servants of God Carlos R. Yarez and Victor Schiavoni (see past two Blogs) and  MARIA CRUZ LOPEZ  who was not only born in Paraná, Argentina (1986) but died of the same disease as the two young men.

The daughter of Daniel López and Noemí Johnston, she was the eldest in a family of four children, with parents committed to the faith. She was a young woman with a missionary soul and a joyful, peaceful outlook.

María Cruz stood out for her immense, serene smile and her concern for helping others. She also drew, sang, and played the keyboard. She was dedicated to her studies and her friends and she lived her youth with joy.

 At 14, she encouraged the formation of the Claretian Missionary Movement "Prejumicla" at the San Francisco Javier Chapel. There, she demonstrated her great missionary spirit, motivating others, visiting homes, and committing herself to the families she visited. She later continued in Catholic Action, combining these two charisms until her death.

In her senior year of high school, she was diagnosed with leukemia.  At first she was upset, but she accepted her illness with great fortitude and peace, giving strength to her family and friends. In the face of great pain, she always knew how to bear it with a smile and the confidence that God had not abandoned her.

This attitude of dedication and service motivated her high school class to transform itself under the motto "All for Maria Cruz." Her classmates joined in prayer, worship, visits, letters, and campaigns to help her. There was a tremendous spiritual force surrounding her illness and a tremendous attraction of grace.

In her family, school, parish groups, friends, and  university she left traces that deeply impacted those who knew her. María Cruz was an example of the importance of surrendering ourselves completely to God and accepting His will in our lives. Despite facing an illness that sapped her strength, she maintained her spirit of service and trust in God, praying for others and encouraging prayer. 

Her biographers recount that María Cruz “accepted the test as God's will and decided to offer her illness, especially for the unity of her class (she had been sharing the last years of high school with a difficult, disunited class, with many behavioral problems), also for her family and for the priests. As the weeks passed, after beginning treatment, her diagnosis worsened: she suffered from hepatosplenic lymphoma, a rare and more serious oncological disease.

Even while hospitalized, she remained faithful to her spirit of service, thinking about how to help those also hospitalized and accompanying everyone in prayer.  And without knowing it, her own  prayer and closeness to God awoke ithe Spirit in othes who prayed especially for her.

In 2005, she received a bone marrow transplant and gradually resumed her activities. She began a new apostolate to support children with leukemia and their families at the San Roque Maternal and Child Hospital in Paraná. 

The bone marrow transplant did not help her overcome the disease, which would reappear later that year. Her parents say that despite the grueling, exhausting, and painful nature of the previous treatment, they never saw or heard her complain. 

 Maria died June 2, 2006 at 4:30 p.m., with a smile on her lips.  

All three young people lived in the same time frame, in the same city and one wonders if they knew one another? No matter,  this country of Pope Francis prodcued three exceptional young people, dedicating their lives to Christ and dying of the same disease, knowing how to offer their sufferings in union with Him.