Newman was ordained a Catholic priest May 30, 1847 at the Re Magi collegiate church inside the Propaganda Fide building. Newman celebrated his first Mass in another chapel of the building, at an altar above a shrine of martyr St. Hyacinth.
Later that year a novitiate was set up for his new English oratorians, and in December Newman returned to England, establishing the Oratory near Birmingham.
Newman's next appearance in Rome was for a less happy occasion. In 1856 he returned to the city to meet with the pope to resolve a dispute between the Birmingham Oratory and the newer London Oratory.
His fourth and final visit to the Eternal City was as a cardinal-elect. Newman had wanted to refuse the honor of being named cardinal, because he was worried he would have to leave the Birmingham Oratory to reside permanently in Rome. But Leo XIII made an exception for Newman, who was the first cardinal he created, bestowing upon him the red biretta May 13, 1879.
The exhibit at the Venerable English College brings together several artifacts connected to Newman and his Roman visits.
Among these are letters to Newman written by cardinals on behalf of the pope, first edition copies of his The Pope and the Revolution and his "Biglietto Speech," which he gave on the occasion of becoming a cardinal.
There is also an original letter from Newman to the then-prefect of Propaganda Fide in 1881, thanking him for sending a copy of an apostolic constitution by Leo XIII.
The temporary exhibit, which collects items from the College of Propaganda Fide, the International Centre of Newman Friends, the Anglican Centre, the Beda College, and the Venerable English College, also includes a large oil pastel portrait of the soon-to-be saint and a first class relic of his hair.
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.