About Newman
Saints Ignatius of Loyola and John Henry Newman: Conversion Stories
July 31, 2026
Saints Ignatius of Loyola and John Henry Newman: Conversion Stories
Few things are as inspiring as a conversion story. We think of St. Paul, blinded by the light of Jesus on the road to Damascus; Augustine, hearing children’s voices telling him to “take up and read” Paul’s letter to the Romans; and John Newton, leaving the slave trade to preach and write the famous hymn “Amazing Grace.” In this podcast we will look at and compare the conversion stories of two other famous figures, Ignatius of Loyola and John Henry Newman.
Ignatius’ conversion is justly famous and is almost always referred to in a Jesuit-led retreat. Ignatius was born a year before Columbus sailed to the New World. Although living in the Renaissance, he was shaped by the values of medieval chivalry. His early life was dedicated to acquiring a reputation for success in battle and to enjoying the excitement of courtly love. We don’t know all the details, but Ignatius tells us in his fascinating autobiography that he was devoted to vanity, sensuality, and military exploits. He seems to have been brave and loyal, and even to have been a nominal Christian, but he did not take his faith seriously.
All this would change when Ignatius’ leg was hit by a cannonball, while he was bravely defending a fortress under siege. The French attackers graciously allowed him to return to his family castle where he convalesced, after a terribly painful surgery. As he recovered, he asked for books of chivalry and romance but was told the house only had a Life of Christ and a book of Saints’ Lives. Ignatius was disappointed, but he soon discovered a happy surprise. When he daydreamed about chivalry and courtly love, he was excited for a while, but his enjoyment soon faded. Yet when he read of the saints and thought about their way of life, he felt a joy that did not quickly fade away. He soon realized that the holy life brought true and perduring joy. Ignatius converted and turned his military ambitions to an even greater ambition to follow God. He would eventually found the Society of Jesus, a group that would influence millions though evangelization, education, and spiritual formation.
Ignatius was a hero to St. John Henry Newman, and in fact many of Newman’s friends suspected that he would join the Society of Jesus, which he did not do. Newman’s conversion was less dramatic than that of Ignatius but it was nevertheless powerful. Like Ignatius’ conversion, Newman’s occurred at a moment of desolation. When Newman was a teen, the bank his father owned collapsed financially. Probably because of the stress, John Henry grew sick. Prior to this time, Newman, who had been raised in a devout home, had begun toying with atheism after reading several religious skeptics and being around unbelieving classmates. This skepticism was not satisfying during Newman’s time of desolation, and providentially Newman was brought back to the faith through the efforts of a devoted friend and Calvinist clergyman, Walter Mayers. Mayers patiently and diligently worked with Newman, helping him regain his faith. Although Newman would quickly abandon some of Mayers’ Calvinist viewpoints, he remained grateful to him for helping him find God.
When we speak of Newman’s conversion, however, there is a sense in which we should use the plural of the word. Unlike Ignatius, who simply switched from being a nominal Christian to a saint, Newman really had two great spiritual moves, one from apparent agnosticism to Protestantism and then one, much slower, conversion from Calvinist, low-church Anglicanism to becoming a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. For a period of over twenty years, Newman slowly moved closer and closer to the Roman Catholic faith, which could be considered a second conversion. There were many factors involved: Newman’s dissatisfaction with Calvinist thoughts about double-predestination and justification, his reading of the early Church fathers, his encounter with Roman Catholic piety when he visited Italy, and his thoughtful interaction with others in the so-called Oxford Movement, which advocated a traditional way of faith and worship for the Church of England. Newman was slow and methodical in his movement towards Rome, although of course he moved more quickly at some times than others. He believed his soul was at stake, so he did not want to move precipitously. Also, by about the midpoint in this conversion to the Roman Church, Newman had become an influential leader, and he had no wish to cause scandal or lead others astray. Moreover, he truly loved the Church of England and only left it out of a firm conviction that it had erred in its departure from Rome. Newman has been called a “reluctant convert,” but when he became convinced that the Roman Catholic Church was the one true church, he had to move his allegiance at any costs.
We see then, in Ignatius and Newman great self-awareness and an openness to God and the truth. Both men showed total commitment once they felt they had found the truth, and this helped them become saints and models for our own lives.
Scott Goins
McNeese State University
Lake Charles, Louisiana
