Founding rector of UCD to be made a saint
The founding rector of University College Dublin is to be made a saint in October.
Cardinal John Henry Newman was the first rector of the Catholic University of Ireland in 1854, with the institution later becoming UCD.
A convert to Catholicism from Anglicanism, Cardinal Newman was one of five names announced yesterday for canonisation by Pope Francis on October 13. His canonisation comes after the Pontiff credited Cardinal Newman with a second miracle earlier this year - therefore making him eligible for sainthood.
Cardinal Newman was beatified during Pope Benedict XVI's four-day UK visit in 2010, after the Vatican ruled that the curing of a trainee Deacon’s crippling spinal disease in 2001 was miraculous after the man had prayed to Cardinal Newman for intervention.
Earlier this year Pope Francis recognised a second miracle attributed to Cardinal Newman, the curing of a “life-threatening pregnancy”. The Catholic News Agency reported that in 2013 the woman involved “prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Newman at the time of a life-threatening diagnosis, and her doctors have been unable to explain how or why she was able to suddenly recover”.
This miracle was investigated and approved by the Archdiocese of Chicago, paving the way for Cardinal Newman’s canonisation.
Born in 1801, Cardinal Newman was originally a priest in the Church of England at Oxford University, and became part of what became known as the “Oxford Movement”, a campaign by Anglicans who wished to return the Church of England to some Catholic beliefs and rituals. He left the Church of England in 1845 and was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church based in Birmingham. Cardinal Newman died in 1890.
The Catholic Church in England and Wales said Cardinal Newman will be the first English person who has lived since the 17th century officially recognised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, described the news as “a moment of great pride”.
“On Friday it was the feast of the Sacred Heart and we held a mass for the priests of England and Wales. Foremost in our minds was the declaration of a saint who was a priest here,” he said.
John Henry Newman is known for many great qualities, but we remember him particularly for the kindness and compassion of his ministry to the people of Birmingham.
"At his death they turned out in their thousands to salute a much-loved priest on his funeral procession through the streets of Birmingham,” he said.
