The Cause of the Canonisation of John Henry Cardinal Newman

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The 208th Anniversary of Newman’s Birth Commemorated at the Birmingham Oratory

Categorised as News and published Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
Message from the Actor of the Cause for the 208th Anniversary of Newman’s Birth
Newman’s School celebrates its 150th Anniversary at the Birmingham Oratory

The Altar of St. Athanasius and Shrine of St. Valentine
The Oratory, Birmingham

To commemorate the 208th anniversary of the birth of John Henry Newman, Solemn Vespers were celebrated at the Oratory, Birmingham, on the afternoon of Saturday 21st February. The combined choirs of the Oratory School, Reading, sang for both Vespers, and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament which followed.

On February 21st the Oratory in Birmingham keeps the feast of the Roman Martyr St. Valentine. When John Henry Newman returned from Rome to England to found the first English Oratory in 1847, Blessed Pope Pius IX gave him the bodily remains of St. Valentine, an early Christian martyr buried in the catacombs outside Rome. Little is known about St. Valentine’s life; Valentine was a fairly common Roman name, but we know that he was a Christian martyr from the manner in which he was buried. Cardinal Newman, like St. Philip Neri, was devoted to the “primitive times” of the Roman Church. The remains of St. Valentine, which now lie beneath the altar of St. Athanasius in the Oratory, provide a bond with those early days of the Church. Since nothing was known about the date of St. Valentine’s death, the Pope gave Newman permission to keep the Feast on his own birthday. (This St. Valentine is not safely to be identified with the saint celebrated on 14th February.)

Click here for the Wikipedia article on St Valentine (Feast Day 14th February) which refers to the saint of the same name at the Birmingham Oratory