Cardinal John Henry Newman

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This is important because a martyr is declared a saint due to the form of death, while other saints led sanctified lives. The term canonisation is much misun­derstood. It is not an award of an honour such as being made a Knight of the Garter, nor is it a posthumous medal for holiness. It is a declaration that someone showed heroic virtue in life and whose sanctity has been proved by miracles.

It is a declaration that the person has joined the Communion of Saints in Hea­ven and is, therefore, particularly close to God. Saints' days are almost invariably the day of their death, a celebration of their entry into Heaven. Saintly intercession was of great impor­tance in England prior to the Reformation. Almost every individual would have had a particular saint to whom he or she prayed. Villages, towns, guilds - even the whole country - had saints who could be called upon. St George is the most famous now but St Edward the Confessor was much venerated, as were men such as St Thomas à Becket. These saints would intercede for the individual or group, asking God to answer their prayers. They do not act individually but as a conduit between fallen Man and the inestimable divine. It gives people a personal connection to God of an understandable and human kind, although in the Middle Ages the faithful sometimes took this a little far and could become cross if a saint's intercession did not work. They might even throw the saint's relics on to the floor. In a rather charming way this empha­sises the personal relationship between the living and the dead. The Reformation led to a decline in saintly veneration in England but it has always continued in the Catholic Church and explains why Catholics so often have pictures or statues of a particular saint.

Pope Francis will canonise John Henry Newman

Not surprisingly, the BlessedVirgin is the most venerated and, historically, England had a particular devotion to her and was seen as "Our Lady's Dowry". The creation of a new saint is important because it keeps alive the hope of salva­tion for all. Newman, whose canonisation will be attended by Prince Charles on behalf of the Queen, did not live in an age so remote that it is impossible to feel any link to it. He lived in the era of steam trains and burgeoning parliamentary democracy yet his life was so good that God has taken him into Heaven. This knowledge may lead others to faith and many people may find it easier to find a link via a more recent intercessor. Newman was born into a conventional Anglican family in 1801 where, as he said, he was "brought up from a child to take a great delight in reading the Bible". This was a time before Catholic Emancipation, which came in 1829. When, aged just 16, he went to Trinity College, Oxford, it was not yet open to Catholics to study there. He loved and was happy both at Trinity and later at Oriel College, where he became a fellow at the age of 21. His incredible intellect led him to secular success and he won honour because of his spiritual virtue.

Prince Charles will attend the ceremony in Rome

In the 19th century the Church of England was able to bring worldly as well as religious benefit to its leading figures. However Newman, after a period of intense struggle, gave all this up. He had to resign his fellowship and office in the Church of England, which must have been especially difficult as it removed his income in middle age - as had happened to his own father when his bank had failed. Newman's conversion was not led by any hostility towards the Anglican Church. He argued for as long as he could that it was essentially Catholic, even maintaining that the Thirty-­Nine Articles, a famously Protestant declaration, were not incompat­ible with Catholicism. However, in the end his studies on the Ancient Church led him to the conviction that "in speaking against the Church of Rome I may be speaking against the Holy Ghost". This effectively forced him to con­ vert, regardless of the risk to friendship, finances and status. Once Newman had converted he was freer to devote himself to elucidating and propagating the Faith. The success today of the Brompton Oratory, which is full every weekend and benefits from many vocations, derives from Cardinal Newman, whose first Oratory was at Birmingham. This continu­ing benefit of his work shows how the lives of the saints influence others for genera­tions. Newman spent his life searching for the truth and wanted to help others to find it too.

Jacob Rees-Mogg is Leader of the House of Commons and a prominent Roman Catholic