Pope Leo XIV to Visit Montserrat and Sagrada Familia in June 2026 Amid Low Catholic Practice in Secular Catalonia

Pope Leo XIV will visit a medieval monastery on a mountaintop at Montserrat and then celebrate Mass at Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia Basilica on June 10, 2026. The seven-day trip marks his first visit to Spain as pope. Montserrat lies a healthy drive from Barcelona followed by a steep ascent.

The complex includes an 11th-century Benedictine abbey and a 16th-century basilica. Two million people travel annually to the site. The Black Madonna statue at Montserrat was originally white but turned dark by centuries of smoke and incense before being painted black.

The evening Mass at the Sagrada Familia commemorates the centennial of the death of architect Antoni Gaudí. Construction of the basilica began 144 years ago. The first cornerstone was laid in 1882 during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII.

Foreigners account for 90 percent of Sagrada Familia visitors, and more Americans visit than Spaniards, according to the basilica. Visits increased from about 3 million a year to nearly 5 million in 2025 after Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the basilica in 2010. The recently raised Tower of Jesus Christ has made the Sagrada Familia the world’s tallest church.

Xavier Martínez, CEO of the Sagrada Familia’s construction project, said, “I believe that on June 10 we will experience something similar to what we saw in 2010. At that time, the world discovered the interior of the Sagrada Familia. ” Pope Leo XIV will speak almost exclusively Spanish on the trip, with some comments in Catalan.

Just over half of Spaniards polled by the state opinion agency in 2024 self-identified as Catholics, but only about 1 in 5 called themselves practicing Catholics. Catalonia is one of Spain’s most secular provinces. The Rev.

He added that the basilica tries to welcome pilgrims and tourists while ensuring parishioners feel it is their own. Mònica Santín, a tour guide and historian researching her doctoral thesis on Gaudí at Barcelona’s ISCREB theology school, noted that a young Gaudí apprenticed with an architect building the mountaintop chapel for the Virgin of Montserrat.

That same architect was originally hired to build the Sagrada Familia, but material costs made his neo-Gothic proposal inviable.

Santín said the basilica’s sandcastle-like towers resemble the spirelike rock formations of Montserrat. “Montserrat is our holy mountain,” she said.