REVERED Birmingham cleric Cardinal John Newman, who left the Church of England to become a Roman Catholic, has taken a step closer to becoming a saint. Cardinal Newman, after whom the Newman University College in Bartley Green is named, is set to be beatified by the Vatican.
The priest, who lived from 1801 to 1890, will be given the title "blessed" in a ceremony later this year and be only a step away from Sainthood.
The Roman Catholic Church has accepted that he was responsible for a miracle in which an American clergyman was "cured" of a crippling spinal disorder.
However, he will only be canonised as a saint if a second miracle can be attributed to him.
London born Newman was ordained an Anglican in 1824. He became a Catholic in 1845.
In 1846 he moved to the Oscott College and Maryvale where he developed his new Catholism and later lived in St Ann's, Alcester Street, Edgbaston. He was also involved in the establishment of the Birmingham Oratory.
He is buried at a cemetery in the Lickey Hills at the oratory country house Rednall Hill.
The miracle he is credited with took place just seven years ago when Jack Sullivan, a deacon from Marshfield, Massachusetts, USA who was suffering from a serious spinal condition, prayed to Newman to intercede.
The case of a 17-year-old boy from New Hampshire who survived serious head injuries from a car crash is being investigated as evidence of the second miracle needed to declare him a saint.
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