By Isle of Wight Observer
Pope Leo XIV will officially declare Saint John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church on Saturday, November 1 – the Feast of All Saints. He is the most recently canonised English saint, and visited the Isle of Wight twice: first in 1861, staying in Ventnor, and again in September, 1865, when he lodged mainly in Ryde.
During his second visit, he offered Mass three times at St. Mary’s Church on Ryde High Street. The church will commemorate the historic connection with a plaque on its wall.
St John Henry Newman was an Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism, later becoming a cardinal. Until his death, in 1890, he was an important figure in the religious history of England. He is believed to be only the second canonised saint to have visited the Isle of Wight, the first being St. Wilfrid in AD 686.
Isle of Wight Observer