Many may wonder why Newman was beatified; what was it that made him holy? The authors of this book hope to suggest an answer to this question. His was not a life of extraordinary signs and wonders, of visions and ecstasies, or of great physical trials. His holiness consisted in living up to the divine gifts and virtues of faith, hope, and love, and in accepting and obeying God's will in the ordinary, everyday circumstances of life, as well as in the extraordinary spiritual trials which he faced for long periods.

This book is compiled and edited by two members of The Spiritual Family The Work (FSO) who for many years have helped to develop the International Centre of Newman Friends and its specialized Newman libraries in Rome, Littlemore, Bregenz and Budapest.

The International Centre of Newman Friends, whose mission began in 1975 with the organization of the first academic Symposium on John Henry Newman with the organization of the first academic Symposium on John Henry Newman ever to be held in Rome, hopes that this volume will help to make the life of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman even more widely known.

"This illustrated life of Newman is an excellent introduction for those who know little or nothing of the great cardinal. But Newman scholars, too, will be delighted by the illustrations that bring to life the man and his times… I am confident that this richly illustrated portrait will draw many to the holiness of Newman so that they turn to him in their needs."
-Father Ian Ker

Sr. Kathleen Dietz FSO, the subject of whose 2007 PhD dissertation was John Henry Newman and the Fathers of the Church: The Birth of an Ecclesiology, is currently teaching theology Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Newman Association of America.

Sr. Mary -Birgit Dechant FSO studied for her MA in Theology in Vienna and has been in charge of the International Centre of Newman Friends in Littlemore, Oxford, from 2004, where The Spiritual Family The Work has been present since 1986 at the request of the Birmingham Oratory.

Paperback, 6 x 9, 154 pages