5 little-known aspects about the life of Saint John Henry Newman

Leo XIV will confer the title of Doctor of the Universal Church on Saint John Henry Newman, an Anglican priest converted to Catholicism in 1845. He was created cardinal by Leo of the most complex and luminous figures of Christian thought. Read here 5 little-known aspects of his life.

1. He converted to Catholicism at the age of 45 after writing a book

Saint John Henry Newman, canonized by Francis in 2019, dared to do something that very few dare: change his mind. At the age of 45 he passed from Anglicanism to Catholicism after an evolution that led him, through philosophy and theology, to an encounter with Christ in his Church. In 1845 he wrote Essay on the development of Christian doctrine, which would become a Christian classic.

During the writing of the book, he experienced inner peace and deep certainty: he understood that the Catholic Church was the same as the first centuries, that of the Church Fathers and the first councils. He did not even finish the book: he interrupted his writing, added three or four sentences saying “I will stop here” and asked to be received into the Catholic Church.

2. His work was censored

When he was an Anglican he was one of the promoters of the so-called Oxford Movement who advocated reviving the apostolic roots of the Church of England over the reform of King Henry VIII. His Tract 90 was the last and most famous of the Tracts for the Timesa series of theological pamphlets published to renew the Anglican Church. This document that he wrote in 1840 was received with enormous hostility. The Bishop of Oxford, Richard Bagot, ordered the publication of the Tracts and several universities prohibited its reading in seminars.

3. He did not want to participate in the First Vatican Council

Newman was neither a mechanically obedient theologian nor a conformist thinker. This became especially visible during the definition of the dogma of papal infallibility at the First Vatican Council, held in 1870. When the possibility of proclaiming this dogma was being discussed, Newman—who was already a highly respected figure in the English theological world—did not hide his concern.

He considered that the declaration, at that historical moment, could be misinterpreted or used as a political instrument rather than as a truth of faith. For this reason, although he was invited to participate in the Council, he preferred not to attend. However, once the Council solemnly proclaimed the dogma, Newman remained faithful. He accepted it and defended it, although not without nuances. “When the Pope speaks from the chair -he wrote-, he does not do so as an isolated oracle, but as an interpreter of the faith of the universal Church.

4. He was rector of the Catholic University of Ireland

In 1854, nine years after his conversion to Catholicism, Saint John Henry Newman received an invitation from the bishops of Ireland to become rector of the Catholic University of Ireland, which they had decided to create. At that time, the life of Irish Catholics was still, compared to Anglicans, one of precariousness and poverty. Newman devoted himself to the project, at the same time that he was giving a series of lectures that would later be published under the title The Idea of ​​a University. However, the institution never received formal approval from the British Government and so its titles were not legally recognized.

5. He embodied the figure of chivalry

Cardinal John Henry Newman was, in the deepest sense of the term, a Christian gentleman. Not only because of his intellectual elegance or his British courtesy, but because he conceived the figure of the gentleman as a moral and spiritual ideal. in the volume The idea of ​​a universityNewman offers one of the most precise and elevated definitions of what it means to be a gentleman, a concept that, for him, epitomized true character education. For Newman, being a knight did not mean possessing a noble title, but rather cultivating a nobility of soul.

“The true gentleman,” he wrote, “never inflicts pain. His great concern is to make others feel comfortable and he avoids any word or action that might cause uneasiness or embarrassment.” In this description, which has become one of the most cited in Victorian literature, it does not only talk about manners or social refinement. Newman understood chivalry as an expression of respect for the dignity of another, a form of practical charity.