Card. John Henry Newman is soon to be canonized

Anthony Mollica, Guest Writer

Pope Francis announced recently that Blessed John Henry Newman will be canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church, after a second miracle was attributed to his intercession.  He was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in 2010 and he is the first English saint to be canonized since 1970. Cardinal Newman is considered a father figure of modern academia and higher education in the Church, and as a saint he will surely be considered a patron of Catholic education.  

John Henry Newman was born in London, England in 1801.  He attended Oxford University and was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1825.  Newman became involved in theological research that eventually led him to believe in the legitimacy of the Roman Catholic Church, and soon after converting he was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1847.  Newman was a cardinal but never a bishop, and he spent much of his life writing as a theologian. His writings are considered some of the most influential in modern Church history and are viewed my many as being part of the academic catalyst that led to the Second Vatican Council.  He devoted his life to fostering Catholic education and founded several schools in England. Cardinal Newman died in 1890.

There were two miracles that the Church attributed to Cardinal Newman; one involved the curing of a deacon’s spinal cord defect and the other involved a pregnant woman with a life-threatening emergency who was cured by his intercession.  His canonization date has yet to be announced.