An English order of nuns has made public the letters between a dying nun and English Cardinal John Henry Newman, who founded the Oxford Movement to bring the Anglican Church back to its Catholic roots. The letters show how the 19th-century theologian, who will be beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in England in September, tried to console Visitation Sister Dominica Bowden after she discovered she was suffering from tuberculosis.
The letters, copies of which have been shown to Catholic News Service, illustrate their friendship and reveal how the nun's death left Cardinal Newman distraught.
Cardinal Newman knew Sister Dominica because her father, John William Bowden, was his best friend during his years at Oxford University.
As an Anglican priest, in 1831 he had baptized the future nun as a baby, "Marianne." She became a Catholic in 1847, two years after Newman was received into the church and three years after her father had died; she entered the convent at the age of 21.
Cardinal Newman preached at the Westbury convent Mass at which Sister Dominica took her final vows.
The correspondence between the pair began soon afterward, and although only Cardinal Newman's letters remain, they display deep affection.
At the time, Sister Dominica was in her 30s and Cardinal Newman was in his 60s.
In some of the letters, which have never been published, the cardinal reflects on day trips to the seaside or grumbles about growing old, struggling to pay the bills, or his frustration at being unable to open an oratory at Oxford.
The tone of the letters suddenly changes, however, when Sister Dominica tells him that she is gravely ill.
He tries to console her by saying he is praying for her and offering Masses for her recovery.
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