John Henry Newman

Life events

1. Born — 1801

   Newman was born on 21 February 1801 in the City of London, the eldest of six children of John Newman, a banker with Ramsbottom, Newman and Company in Lombard Street, and Jemima (née Fourdrinier), descended from a Huguenot family of engravers and stationers.

2. Educated — 1822

   After graduating from Trinity College, Oxford with lower second-class honours, Newman was elected a fellow of Oriel College on 12 April 1822, then regarded as the acknowledged centre of Oxford intellectualism; Edward Bouverie Pusey was elected to the same college the following year.

3. Ordained — 1825

   Newman was made an Anglican deacon at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford on 13 June 1824, and ordained an Anglican priest there on Trinity Sunday, 29 May 1825, by Edward Legge, Bishop of Oxford; he became vicar of St Mary's University Church, Oxford in 1828.

4. Wrote — 1833

   Returning from Sicily in June 1833, Newman wrote the verses 'Lead, Kindly Light' while becalmed in the Strait of Bonifacio; back in Oxford on 9 July, he launched the Tracts for the Times in the autumn, giving the Oxford Movement its Tractarian name.

5. Other — 1845

   On 9 October 1845, Newman was received into the Catholic Church by Dominic Barberi, an Italian Passionist, at the college in Littlemore, after publishing a formal retractation of his anti-Catholic statements and resigning the living of St Mary's.

6. Ordained — 1847

   In Rome, Newman was ordained a Catholic priest by Cardinal Giacomo Filippo Fransoni and awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity by Pope Pius IX; he returned to England at the close of 1847 as an Oratorian, eventually settling at Edgbaston, Birmingham, where he lived for nearly forty years.

7. Other — 1879

   Newman was elevated to the rank of cardinal in the consistory of 12 May 1879 by Pope Leo XIII, who assigned him the Deaconry of San Giorgio al Velabro; unusually for the time, he was neither consecrated a bishop nor required to reside in Rome, remaining in Birmingham.

8. Died — 1890

   Newman died of pneumonia on 11 August 1890 at the Birmingham Oratory and was buried eight days later alongside his lifelong friend Ambrose St John in the cemetery at Rednal Hill, Birmingham, in accordance with his express wishes.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Newman's Tract 90 (1841) argued the Church of England's Thirty-Nine Articles did not contradict Catholic doctrine, provoking condemnation from senior Oxford tutors and ending the Tract series at the Bishop of Oxford's request. (certain)
• Newman published the Apologia Pro Vita Sua in seven weekly parts from 21 April 1864, written to refute Charles Kingsley's accusation in Macmillan's Magazine that Catholic clergy did not value truth; its candour transformed public opinion of its author. (certain)
• Newman adopted as his cardinal's motto Cor ad cor loquitur ('Heart speaks to heart'), traced by William Barry to Francis de Sales; his joint memorial stone with Ambrose St John bears Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem ('Out of shadows and phantasms into the truth'), traced to Plato's allegory of the cave. (certain)
• Newman was canonised by Pope Francis on 13 October 2019 in St. Peter's Square, attended by the Prince of Wales representing the United Kingdom; Pope Leo XIV proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church on 1 November 2025, naming him co-patron of Catholic education alongside Thomas Aquinas. (certain)
• When Newman's grave was opened on 2 October 2008 to transfer his remains for veneration, the wooden coffin had disintegrated and no bones were found; forensic expert John Hunter from the University of Birmingham concluded total disappearance of bone was unlikely over that timescale. (certain)