Pope names Oxford theologian John Henry Newman patron of education

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday named Saint John Henry Newman — the 19th century Oxford theologian who is the first English saint of the modern era — a “patron of the church’s educational mission alongside St Thomas Aquinas.”

Newman will also be proclaimed the 38th Doctor of the Church by the Pope at the closing mass of the Catholic Church’s Jubilee of the World of Education on Saturday.

Lord Mendoza, Provost of Oriel College, said: “Saint John Henry Newman pursued truth with determination wherever he found it. He understood the value of dialogue within universities, and his example and philosophy of education continue to influence the system of teaching at Oxford today.

“We are delighted that he has been named a patron of education and will soon be proclaimed a Doctor of the Church.”

Oriel is marking the Pope’s proclamation of Newman as a Doctor of the Church by co-hosting a series of academic seminars with the Oxford Newman Network about his teaching.

Newman was one of the most significant scholars in Oxford for more than two decades. As a Fellow of Oriel College from 1822 to 1845, and the vicar of University Church of St Mary the Virgin from 1828 to 1843, he became one of the most divisive figures in the Church of England of his era through his leading role in the Oxford Movement.

Along with notable colleagues such as John Keble and Edward Pusey, Newman argued that the Church of England needed to restore its catholic and apostolic heritage.

Gradually he lost confidence in the Church of England. In 1841, he published Tract 90 arguing for a Catholic interpretation of the Church of England’s founding Thirty-Nine Articles. His argument, however, failed to persuade the majority, and in turn Newman left the Church. “I would not hold office in a church which would not allow my sense of the articles,” he wrote.

In 1845, having already resigned from the University Church in 1842, Newman resigned his fellowship at Oriel and was received into the Roman Catholic Church. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1847.

Newman gave a series of lectures in 1852 at the Catholic University of Ireland on his philosophy of education. These were then published as The Idea of a University, which became a classic work for its argument for liberal education.

The university, Newman wrote, is “a place where inquiry is pushed forward, and discoveries verified and perfected, and rashness rendered innocuous, and error exposed, by the collision of mind with mind, and knowledge with knowledge.”

Newman was made a Cardinal in 1879, and in 1890 died in Birmingham. In 2019, his canonisation was presided over by Pope Francis. He is the first English saint born since the 17th century.

When the Pope proclaims Newman a Doctor of the Church on Saturday, he will also become the first saint born in England to receive the title since Saint Bede, also known as the Venerable Bede, who was born in 672 AD and declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1899.