Articles
St. John Henry Newman’s ordination to the Catholic priesthood, May 30, 1847
May 30, 2025
(Chapel of the Three Magi at the Palazzo di Propaganda Fide, where Newman celebrated his first Mass)
St. John Henry Newman was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Rome on May 30, 1847, only a year and a half after he was received into the Catholic Church. The anniversary of this ordination is a time to reflect upon not only the beautiful life of this fascinating man, but also on the remarkable gift of the Holy priesthood. From the perspective of our own time, Newman’s life can be seen as a trajectory towards his sainthood. As with any life, Newman’s life had ups and downs, losses and grief, victories and defeats, illnesses and loneliness, regret and joy. It is the very authenticity of his life that makes him so relatable, a saint for our time.
Newman is relatable for all these reasons but especially in that the England of Newman’s time was like our own. It had become very secular, morality had become lax, and to Newman’s perceptive mind, evangelization was necessary. Since he was an adult convert to Catholicism, he had not grown up in the presence of Catholic priests. Because of this, St. John Henry came to the Catholic priesthood with lived experiences outside of Catholicism. His sense of the Catholic priesthood is from his Anglican experiences, but also from his lived life, that of study and reflection, his knowledge of the scriptures and the Fathers of the Church.
Roman Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman really was a part of all that he had met. A formative experience in John Henry’s young life was his Mediterranean voyage. In December 1833, Newman and Hurrell Froude embarked on an extended voyage through the Mediterranean with Froude’s father, an archdeacon in the Anglican Church. Not only did he experience a nearly fatal illness during this trip, but he was introduced to the world outside his native England, which he had, until then, only learned about from books. History became real to him. He was introduced to the beauty of Catholicism in his visits to Catholic churches, he suffered loneliness when he had to spend time in quarantine outside of Malta, away from family at Christmas. But this voyage also inspired him to write poetry, poetry that gives insight into his heart and mind, and tells us about the person, Newman.
Many of Newman’s Mediterranean poems are of the history made real by the journey. He took historical situations, usually Biblical ones, and applied their general truths to present situations. One such set of poems from the voyage are those based on the Old Testament Patriarchs. Newman sees the figures like Melchizedek, Abraham, and Joseph for examples of wisdom and virtue or as prefigurements of Christ.
In the poem, “Melchizedek,” Newman tackles the problem of loneliness, thereby teaching how a great trial may lead to a higher good. This poem also gives one of the earliest hints at his vocation to the priesthood. The poem begins with an epigram. “Without father, without mother, without descent; having neither beginning of days, nor end of life.”
THRICE bless’d are they, who feel their loneliness;
To whom nor voice of friends nor pleasant scene
Brings aught on which the sadden’d heart can lean;
Yea, the rich earth, garb’d in her daintiest dress
Of light and joy, doth but the more oppress.
Claiming responsive smiles and rapture high;
Till, sick at heart, beyond the veil they fly.
Seeking His Presence, who alone can bless.
Such, in strange days, the weapons of Heaven’s grace;
When, passing o’er the high-born Hebrew line.
He moulds the vessel of His vast design;
Fatherless, homeless, reft of age and place.
Sever’d from earth, and careless of its wreck.
Bom through long woe His rare Melchizedek.
(Corfu. January 5, 1833)
The opening lines seem contradictory. Those who “feel their loneliness” are not only blessed, but “thrice bless’d.” The absence of “friends” and “pleasant scene” is something to be mourned, but then Newman declares the opposite that the “rich earth, garbed in her daintiest dress / Of light and joy, doth but the more oppress, / Claiming responsive smiles and rapture high”.
For Newman, this solitude even while surrounded by beauty leads not to despair but instead allows the soul to seek “His Presence, who alone can bless.” Newman was of necessity learning that leaning on God, even in sadness, would give him respite.
After the Froudes had departed, Newman especially struggled with loneliness and homesickness. Though it was painful for him, he was able to accept it as providential through the example of this Old Testament figure of Melchizedek. This sorrow draws him closer to God but also gives him assurance of being “mould[ed]” for the purpose of a “vast design.”
Young John Henry next writes: “Fatherless, homeless, reft of age and place./Sever’d from earth, and careless of its wreck.”
This is a theme he will further examine in “Sermons on the Subject of the Day, no. 12.” where he writes: “And all this brings to mind what Scripture says about Melchizedek . . . who was the Priest of the Most High God, and a figure of the Christ who was to come; and, being ‘without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually.’” Newman here had referenced Hebrews 7:3, pertaining to the perpetual priesthood of Melchizedek.
(Church Our Lady of Seat Wisdom, the University Church, Dublin)
A priest, like Melchizedek, experiences times of loneliness yet he finds strength in the Lord, imitating Jesus, the eternal High Priest. Newman understood the priesthood as a divine calling in the line of Melchizedek, and he sought holiness with vigor. He offers an example of priestly vocation for all seminarians and priests, and reminds us that we need to pray for the holiness of priests. On the anniversary of his ordination we give thanks to God for the gift of the priesthood especially for that of St. John Henry Newman.
