Pope to canonize Newman and four others on 13 October

By Linda Bordoni

At a Consistory of cardinals on Monday, Pope Francis formally approved Blessed John Henry Newman’s canonisation along with that of Sister Mariam Thresia, of Giuseppina Vannini, of Dulce Lopes Pontes and of Margarita Bays.

In February, the Pope signed a decree recognising a second miracle attributed to Blessed John Henry Newman, the inexplicable healing of a woman with a “life-threatening pregnancy”.

Blessed John Henry Newman was one of the most prominent converts to Catholicism from Anglicanism of the 19th century. He was already an esteemed Anglican theologian when he founded the Oxford Movement to return the Church of England to its Catholic roots, before himself converting to the Catholic faith. He was renowned as a brilliant thinker and was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII. He died in Birmingham in 1890, aged 89, after founding the Birmingham Oratory.

Sister Mariam Thresia of India is the founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family.

Italian Sister Giuseppina Vannini is the founder of the Daughters of Saint Camillus.

Brazilian Sister Dulce Lopes Pontes of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God.

Marguerite Bays of Switzerland, of the Third Order of Saint Francis of Assisi.