October 9, 1845

John Henry Newman (February 21, 1801 to August 11, 1890)  felt a religious vocation as a youth. At one point this Oxford educated Anglican priest saw the Roman Catholic church as polytheistic and idolatrous. Later he changed his view and saw that a church structure and hierarchy was necessary to prevent solipsism and skepticism. He wrote about and publicized his views on religion. The true church Newman decided, eventually, was the Catholic one.  It was on October 9, 1845 that John Henry Newman, was received into the Roman Catholic Church. This of course meant giving up his status at Oxford University as a fellow.

He was even made a Cardinal later in 1879. Newman's elevation to this high honor resulted in so many letters of congratulations that Newman felt overwhelmed by the need to respond to each note.  Still, he wrote to a friend, had he not, replied to letters so joyful and affectionate, he would be "as hard as stone, and a cruel as a hyena, and as ungrateful as a wild cat. " We owe this quote to the book, The English Catholic Revival in the Nineteenth Century, by Paul Marie Pierre Thureau-Dangin (1914 .)

Newman is now appropriately called Blessed John Henry Newman, as he is on the path to being canonized.