Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman lived between 1801 till 1890. He was the first of six children of Protestant parents in London, England. He loved to read the scriptures as a child, and had a conversion to Christianity when he was 15. He became an Anglican priest and was a very influential Oxford scholar. He led the Oxford movement which argued for the revival of traditional religious practice in the Church of England. As he became more influenced by the Church Fathers and other Catholic writers, he became also more aligned with the Catholic Church and opposed the Anglican doctrine. He then became unable to stay within the Protestant denomination when he studied Church history. In 1845 he converted to Catholicism and experienced much ridicule in the academic and religious fields. He became a Catholic priest 2 years later and was made a Cardinal in 1879. He wrote 40 books and 21000 letters which influenced the Second Vatican Council. He also founded the London Oratory. Apologia is his most famous work where he defends his conversion to the Catholic Church.
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| Image: Portrait of Newman by John Everett Millais, 1881 |
