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| Newman Society Party |
On Wednesday, I took the train from Oxford to Birmingham, about an hour's ride, to visit the Birmingham Oratory, which Cardinal Newman founded in 1852 and where he lived from that time until his death in 1890. It's a marvelous baroque church with a very large but simple house where the Oratorian community lives. My tutor, Fr. Guy Nicholls, who is one of the Oratorian priests in Birmingham, invited me to stay with their community for a few days so that I could spend some time learning about the Oratorian life which Cardinal Newman lived for almost 40 years.
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| My room at the Birmingham Oratory |
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| A hand-written prayer by Cdl. Newman framed and mounted on the wall in my room |
The highlight of my visit to Birmingham - and one of the highlights of my entire fellowship - was being able to see Newman's private library, chapel, and quarters at the Birmingham Oratory. These rooms are not open to the public at all, so it was a very great honor and privelege for me to be invited to visit them.
The house library, pictured below, is extraordinarily vast, with original volumes and documents dating back to the Reformation. Almost half the books in the library belong to Cardinal Newman, and it was fascinating to page through these huge tomes and see marginal notes written in Newman's handwriting throughout them. His collection featured mostly writings of the Church fathers, whom he loved a great deal, as well as other books dealing with philosophy, theology, and history. It was fascinating to just explore so many old books with such an incredible history.
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| Newman's Library |
Pictured below is the desk in Cardinal Newman's quarters where he wrote his famous Apologia Pro Vita Sua (for which this blog is named). Newman wrote this 300-page work in just six weeks, working 18-22 hours a day. It was written at this podium standing upright and illuminated only by candlelight!
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| Bl. John Henry Newman's desk |
Newman's room has been preserved exactly as it was kept when Newman died in 1890 with absolutely no changes made. There is still no electricity in the room, and the newspaper clippings that Newman had taped to his wall in 1890 are still there (albeit quite deteriorated). It was quite amazing to see Cardinal Newman's room in the way it was when he lived there. It gave me a real sense of connection to him not just as the object of my research and studying but also as a real person who lived a life not long ago and has left a great example of scholarship and holiness.
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| Another view of the Cardinal's room |
After my tour of Cardinal Newman's room, I was invited to sign the guestbook on his desk, which showed me how special and unique this opportunity really was. There were probably fewer than 200 signatures in the guestbook, and many of the other signers were quite well-known scholars and figures in the Church, the most famous of whom is pictured below me, during his visit to Newman's rooms in September.
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| Me in Newman's room |
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| Pope Benedict XVI in Newman's room (Photo by L'Osservatore Romano) |
I also got to view Newman's private chapel, which is located in the same room as his desk and study area. This part of his room was originally where Newman's bed was located, but when he was created a cardinal, he was required to have a private chapel in his quarters, so this portion of his room was built, and his bed was moved to the room next door. Pictured above the altar is St. Francis de Sales, to whom Newman had a great devotion, as I came to learn recently. It seems fitting then, that while I was in Fribourg a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see some of the sites from St. Francis's life, since his life was such an inspiration to Newman.
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| Newman's private chapel |
After viewing Newman's rooms, I joined the Oratorians for their daily evening prayers, which take place in a small, newly-consecrated shrine in the Oratory which is dedicated to Bl. John Henry Newman and features a number of his relics. After prayers, we ate dinner, which was quite an interesting experience. The Oratorians take their meal in silence while one of the brothers reads to them, first from the biography of St. Philip Neri, their founder, and later from some other book (right now, it's a history book about the Great Depression).
After dinner, I had my final tutorial, which was unqiue from my others because it took place as Fr. Nicholls and I went for a walk through a suburb of Birmingham and concluded at a local pub. We had a great conversation about Newman and his understanding of moral formation of students, but it was nice to have it in a relaxed and informal manner. At first, I was skeptical of the tutorial system of teaching, and I still have some reservations about it, but I have definitely come to see its value and how a student can gain a great deal from having such close interaction with an expert in the subject he is studying; that has certainly been the case for me.
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| The newly dedicated shrine to Bl. John Henry Newman |
On Thursday, I did a bit of exploring in Birmingham, which is not a particularly beautiful city and does not have many tourist attractions, but I did visit the University of Birmingham, which has a very nice campus right outside the heart of the city. I found it quite interesting that the main quad of the university features an enormous clock tower, built in the Venetian style; it was a unique element that I had never seen in a university landscape before. While I was at the university, I spent some time at the Barber Institute, which houses a very impressive collection of European art including some big names like Reubens, van Gogh, and Manet.
I also had the chance to meet with Prof. James Arthur, who is the dean of the education school at the University of Birmingham and has written several books on Catholic education, moral education, and Cardinal Newman. He and I spoke for about an hour and a half about my research and Newman's thought on education. Before arriving in Birmingham, I didn't even realize that Prof. Arthur was teaching there, so it was a great surprise when Fr. Nicholls told me that I would be meeting with him!
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| The clocktower at the University of Birmingham |
On Thursday evening, I attended Solemn High Mass at the Birmingham Oratory for the Feast of Corpus Christi (which is celebrated on a Thursday accoring to the older rite). Fr. Nicholls celebrated the Mass and preached, so it was nice to see him in a context that wasn't simply academic. The choir was fantastic, the liturgy was beautiful, and Mass was followed by a Eucharistic procession around the church.
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| Solemn High Mass for Corpus Christi at the Birmingham Oratory (photo by Matthew Doyle) |
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| A view of the Oratory church |
On Friday morning, I took the train back to Oxford to begin what has been a very eventful weekend with our friend Robert coming to visit Nathan and me from Rome, where he has been working for the summer. I'll be posting again within he next few days with pictures from the Blackfriars Ball, our whirldwind tour of London, and the Oxford Corpus Christi procession. Now, however, it is time for me to get packing and start saying my farewells to the wonderful people I've met during my time here. It's amazing how quickly these six weeks have passed!
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| Fr. Guy Nicholls and me |
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