CLOTHES from the grave of a 19th Century Birmingham cardinal are to go on show – even though no body was found in his casket. The remains of Roman Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman were to be put in a sarcophagus in Birmingham Oratory in preparation for his anticipated beatification on the road to sainthood.
Although no body was found when the grave in Rednal was exhumed, the church said artefacts discovered in the wooden coffin will be placed in a casket in the Oratory.
A church spokesman said the items include a cross, clothing, some of the wood from the coffin and a lock of hair they already have in their possession.
He added that they were due to be placed in the glass-sided casket in the Upper Cloister Hall at the Birmingham Oratory on October 31 and November 1.
The cardinal is in line to become the first non-martyred English saint since before the Reformation.
Plans for his remains to lie in state were scuppered because the body is thought to have decomposed as the coffin was not lined with lead.
In order for Newman to be beatified - the next stage in the process towards sainthood - a miracle needs to be credited to him by the Vatican.
It requested the grave was excavated as it is investigating claims that Jack Sullivan, a deacon from Boston, Massachusetts, claimed to have been cured of a spinal disease after praying to the cardinal.
A second miracle would need to be credited to Newman before he could be canonised and made a saint.
The step-by-step process for his beatification began at the Birmingham Oratory in the late 1950s and continued with Pope John Paul II declaring Newman to be Venerable in January 1991.
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(Source: NCW)