Cardinal Newman, like Saints John Bosco, Therese of Lisieux and Bernadette of Lourdes, whose features are also familiar to us, was born in the age of photography. Having lived so long, much of it in the public eye, he was the subject of several portraits and sketches as well as many photographs; these deepen our unconscious perception of him, already known through his writings. This book, subtitled “A richly illustrated portrait”, brings together many well-known studies of him as well as some of his contemporaries and the buildings, places and memorabilia associated with him, to provide the common reader with a deeper acquaintanceship in this year of his beatification.

In his brief Introduction, Fr Ian Ker reminds us that Newman was misunderstood and misrepresented during his own lifetime. “A man at once intellectually brilliant and keenly sensitive, relentlessly practical and marvellously alive to the wonders of everyday life, he was far from being the hyper-sensitive, melancholic recluse, painted by his first biographer, Wilfred Ward.”

Ker asks the question: what made Newman holy? “His holiness...consisted in living the virtues of faith, hope and charity, in accepting and obeying God’s will in the ordinary, everyday circumstances of life, as well as in the extraordinary trials with which his life was filled” and concludes: “His was in fact a heroic life lived to the full for Christ and his Church.”

Alongside the illustrations are appropriate quotations from Newman’s huge correspondence, his sermons and hymns. Thus, under a photo of him taken in Rome in 1879, which reveals him as a little anxious, absent-minded and frail, is an extract from a letter he wrote to Anne Mozley: “I have this very day learned that the offer of a Cardinal’s hat is to be made to me with the privilege of living still here [Birmingham] as before. So great a kindness, made with so personal a feeling towards me by the Pope, I could not resist, and I shall accept it. It puts an end to all those reports that my teaching is not Catholic nor my books trustworthy...”

The illustrations have been collected by the Sisters of The Work and they are beautifully displayed in a permanent exhibition in the library of the College at Littlemore.

The book is divided into the different phases of the Cardinal’s life and includes such homely items as his rosary, his teapot and his boot hook. Thanks are also owed to the patient labours of Michael Pitt-Payne who photographed each exhibit.

© 2010 Francis Phillips

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