Saint Who?
Saints Who Promoted Marian Devotion
Saint John Henry Newman
Priest († 1890) Feast: October 9
Born in London in 1801, John Henry Newman was raised a Protestant, but was without strong religious convictions until he turned fifteen. At that time he became convinced of his personal relationship with God and of the doctrines of Christianity (as he understood them). After joining the Catholic Church in his mid-forties, Newman was soon ordained a priest, and joined the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri.
He was a brilliant scholar and a master of the English language. Among his writings are letters and discourses on the scriptural and historical evidence for Marian doctrines and titles. Perhaps most beautiful is his series of meditations written for the month of Mary, on the Litany of Loretto.
Commenting on Mary’s title “Mother most amiable,” Newman summed up what so many visionaries have experienced: “There was a divine music in all she said and did…that charmed every true heart that came near her. Her innocence, her humility and modesty, her simplicity, sincerity, and truthfulness, her unselfishness, her unaffected interest in everyone who came to her, her purity…; and were we to see her now, neither our first thought nor our second thought would be, what she could do for us with her Son (though she can do so much), but our first thought would be, ‘Oh, how beautiful!’” Newman was canonized in 2019.
Heavenly Father give us true and humble hearts that delight in the goodness of Mary, Mother most amiable.
