Oxford Inscriptions: Newman at Littlemore
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE
VICAR OF SAINT MARY THE VIRGIN
AFTERWARDS CARDINAL
USED THIS BUILDING
IN THE YEARS 1842–6
AS A PLACE OF RETIREMENT
STUDY & PRAYER
This inscription to John Henry Newman (1801–1890), who was canonized in 2019, is on the side of Newman College in Littlemore.
From 1828 to 1843 Newman was Vicar of the University Church of St Mary-the-Virgin in Oxford, and the village of Littlemore was a distant part of its parish. Newman was instrumental in the building of SS Mary & Nicholas Church in Littlemore, which was consecrated on 22 September 1836.
Newman withdrew to Littlemore in 1842 with a small band of followers, and they lived here at the College (which he called “the house of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Littlemore”) in semi-monastic conditions. He left Littlemore in 1846, the year after he was received into the Roman Catholic Church.