Newman University marked the feast day of St. John Henry Newman, with a Mass held in St. John’s Chapel, honoring the 225th anniversary of the English cardinal’s birth on Feb. 21, 1801.
Newman chaplain and campus ministry director Father Ed Herzog delivered the homily, drawing parallels between St. Newman’s conversion to Catholicism in the 19th century and the universal call to pursue truth regardless of personal cost.
Fr. Ed’s message
Herzog centered his message on Newman’s willingness to abandon comfort, prestige and a tenured position at Oxford University when his study of the early church fathers led him to believe the Catholic Church held the truth.
“There’s only one good reason to become Catholic, and that’s because you think it’s true,” Herzog told those gathered for the Mass, which was held as part of 2026 Heritage Month celebrations on campus.
He said Newman’s journey — marked by sacrifice and the loss of social standing — reflected the Gospel’s call to take up one’s cross, a theme particularly fitting during the Lenten season.
After Herzog’s homily, the Newman University Troubadours sang a song featuring one of St. Newman’s most recognized poems, “Lead, Kindly Light”.
Quick history: John Henry Newman
On February 21st, 1801, Newman was born into the Church of England. From an early age, he showed spiritual and philosophical aspirations and great literary skill. His creed was to “love God above all things and to follow the Truth without compromise.” To no surprise, Newman became a student of Oxford University in 1816 at the age of fifteen. This step led to his career as an Anglican clergyman in 1825, and finally the Vicar of the Oxford University Church, St Mary’s, in 1828.
Newman’s association with Oxford continued for almost thirty years. It was there that he became “the guide, the philosopher, and the martyr of the Oxford Movement,” a religious revival against the rise of liberalism. Within his mission, Newman became interested in the Fathers of the Church, which advanced his journey to Catholicism. After studying the words of the early Church Fathers, Newman concluded the Catholic Church was the “the One Fold of Christ.” On October 9th, 1845, he embraced the Catholic faith and was received into the Catholic Church, by Bl. Dominic Barberi, an Italian Passionist. Newman continued his mission to instruct the faithful by his guideline: “It is not argument that awakens and draws the soul to God, but fidelity to conscience.” On August 11th, 1890, Newman died at the age of 89. His greatest literary works are his religious autobiography the Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864), the An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870) and the Idea of a University (1873).
On Oct. 13th, 2019, Pope Francis declared John Henry Newman to be a saint. St. John Henry Newman’s personal holiness, theological contributions, and reflections on the role of a university make him an excellent spiritual benefactor and namesake of Newman University.
On Nov. 1st, 2025, Pope Leo XIV honored St. John Henry Newman by naming him the thirty-eighth Doctor of the Church.
