Cardinal John Henry Newman Wikicommons Wikicommons

CARDINAL JOHN HENRY Newman, founder of University College Dublin, is to become a saint.

The Vatican has successfully attributed a second miracle to Newman due to the intercession of the Anglican who later converted to the Catholic faith in 1845, it said in a statement yesterday.

Newman, regarded as an important scholar of the 19th century, was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

Born in 1801, Newman founded the Catholic University in 1854. Originally located at St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, it later became University College Dublin. Newman served as the university’s first rector until 1858. 

The former Anglican vicar shook Victorian England when he converted to Catholicism in the mid-19th century. The cause for his sainthood was first opened in 1958 and he was declared ‘Venerable’ by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1991. 

President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols has welcomed the news. 

‘Newman’s exploration of faith, depth of personal courage, intellectual clarity and cultural sensitivity make him a deeply admired follower of Christ,” Nichols said. “He brings together so many of the best of Catholic traditions shared well beyond the Catholic Church. His canonisation will be welcomed especially in the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion.”

Two miracles must be attributed to someone in order for them to become a saint. The first miracle attributed to Newman relates to the case of a Boston deacon whom Newman is said to have saved from paralysis. 

The second miracle relates to a pregnant woman in the United States whom it is claimed Newman saved from unstoppable internal bleeding.

The Vatican has said that this second miracle “clears the final hurdle in the cause for his canonisation.”