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Cardinal Newman declared a saint by the Pope
Image copyright REUTERS/Remo Casilli Image caption Pope Francis led the open-air service in St Peter’s Square, Rome, attended by tens of thousands Cardinal John Henry Newman has been declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church at a ceremony in Rome.The open-air service at the Vatican, celebrated by the Pope, was attended by tens of…
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REUTERS/Remo Casilli
Pope Francis led the open-air service in St Peter’s Square, Rome, attended by tens of thousands
Cardinal John Henry Newman has been declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church at a ceremony in Rome.
The open-air service at the Vatican, celebrated by the Pope, was attended by tens of thousand of pilgrims.
Theologian and poet Newman, who died in Birmingham in 1890, is the first English person to be made a saint in almost 50 years.
The Prince of Wales joined the Mass in St Peter’s Square, at which four women were also canonised.
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Reuters
Prince of Wales attended the Mass to canonise 19th-century cardinal John Henry Newman
Mother Mariam Thresia from India, Swiss Marguerite Bays, Mother Giuseppina Vannini from Italy and Brazilian-born Sister Dulce Lopes Pontes were also made saints at the Mass, celebrated by Pope Francis in Italian.
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John Henry Newman is the first English saint since the Forty Martyrs, who were executed under laws enacted during the English Reformation and canonised in 1970
Thousands of Britons travelled to Rome to join the celebration.
Carol Parkinson, the secretary of the Friends of Newman from Birmingham, said it was a special and emotional day.
“His integrity, his friendship, his capacity for friendship and loyalty and hard work set a very good and hopeful example to everyone,” she added.
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Reuters
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A priest gave instructions to other clergymen ahead of the Mass for the canonisation of 19th Century British cardinal John Henry Newman
Cardinal Newman was born in London in 1801 and attended Trinity College, Oxford, going on to become an Anglican priest and a leading theologian.
He converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1845.
Newman has been credited with two miracles by the Vatican, curing a man’s crippling spinal disease and healing a woman’s unstoppable bleeding.
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Reuters
The service, led by Pope Francis at the Vatican, also canonised a Swiss laywoman, an Indian nun, an Italian nun and a nun known as the “Mother Teresa of Brazil”
The cardinal was beatified in 2010 by Pope Benedict in an open-air Mass in his home city of Birmingham after the first miracle was recognised.
His remains lie in a closed sarcophagus at Birmingham Oratory.
The last English canonisations were in 1970 of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, a group of Catholics who were executed between 1535 and 1679 under laws enacted during the English Reformation.
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