St. John Henry Newman: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers
Feast day: October 9 (kept in England and Wales and elsewhere; not on the General Roman Calendar)
Patron of: No official patronage; often invoked by students, converts, and those seeking truth.
About St. John Henry Newman
John Henry Newman was born in London in 1801. A brilliant student at Oxford, he became a fellow of Oriel College, an Anglican priest, and the vicar of the university church, where his sermons drew crowds. He was a leader of the Oxford Movement, which sought to renew the Church of England by recovering the teaching of the early Church Fathers.
His study of the Fathers slowly convinced him that the Catholic Church was the Church of the apostles. After years of prayer and painful reflection, he was received into the Catholic Church on October 9, 1845, at great personal cost, losing many friends and his position. He was ordained a Catholic priest, founded the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Birmingham, and served as the first rector of the Catholic University in Dublin. His many writings, including the Apologia Pro Vita Sua, The Idea of a University, and the Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, remain classics, and his poem "Lead, Kindly Light" is still widely sung. Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal in 1879. He died in 1890 and was canonized in 2019.
Prayers to St. John Henry Newman on Daily Catholic Prayers
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