The big story: John Henry Newman declared a saint

What happened?

John Henry Newman has been declared the first non-martyr English saint since the 14th century.

At a Mass of Canonisation in the Vatican, Pope Francis announced that Newman and four women were now recognised as saints.

Newman was beatified by Benedict XVI in 2010. Last year Pope Francis approved the judgment of the Vatican’s theological and medical experts that Newman had healed Melissa Villalobos, an American woman who nearly died of bleeding during pregnancy.

In his homily, Pope Francis said that the goal of life is a transforming encounter with Jesus, the Catholic News Agency reported. He then read a quotation from one of Newman’s sermons: “The Christian has a deep, silent, hidden peace, which the world sees not ... The Christian is cheerful, easy, kind, gentle, courteous,
candid, unassuming; has no pretence... with so little that is unusual or striking in his bearing, that he may easily be taken at first sight for an ordinary man.”