Birmingham Oratory, Birmingham City

The shrine chapel of St John Henry Newman is one of the highlights of a one-day pilgrimage walk through Birmingham’s many sacred sites

Highlights

• St John Henry Newman’s Shrine and Monastic Community

St John Henry Newman is at the heart of Birmingham Oratory in every sense of the word, both founder and now saint of this religious community. His relics have been kept in a side chapel in the main parish church, following his beatification in 2010, and is now a saint’s shrine following his canonisation in October 2019.

The oratory mentioned in the name of the institution actually refers to the religious community as a whole. Within its complex is the Oratory Church, a parish church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception. And it is in here that the shrine of St John Henry Newman is venerated. The term ‘oratory’ derives from the fact that the Birmingham community is part of the order of St Philip Neri, a 16th-century priest of Rome such a keen ear for music he founded a secular society called the Congregation of the Oratory. This English community was established by Newman in 1849, moving to its current site three years later.

Newman lived on this site for nearly 40 years, up until his death in 1890 at the age of 89. At his request, he was buried in the same tomb as his lifelong friend Ambrose St John, who had died 15 years previously. In 2008 the tomb was opened with the intention of moving Newman’s relics into a more accessible place, but both his wooden coffin and his remains, along with those of his friend, had unexpectedly disintegrated leaving little more than the coffin’s metal handles.

The shrine today is kept in a side chapel of the main church, which was added to the complex in 1909. It has a small painting of the saint above his shrine altar. A casket kept in this chapel contains the coffin handles mentioned above, and originally had a fragment of bone that was found in his grave, but this was stolen in January 2020. A small museum of the saint’s manuscripts, personal items and liturgical objects has been created on the ground floor.

The author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien spent nine years of his childhood closely involved with this community, his family and his personal education strongly supported by one of the priests after his father’s early death in South Africa.

Directions

Birmingham Oratory, 141 Hagley Rd, Birmingham B16 8UE

http://www.birminghamoratory.org.uk

W3W: atom.ashes.attend

GPS: 52.4720N 1.9289W

The church is open daily, Mon-Fri 7am-4pm, Sat-Sun 8:30am-1:30pm, 4pm-7pm. There are services every day including devotions in the Newman shrine and a blessing with relic after the 11am Mass on Saturdays. The museum is open Thurs-Fri 11am-1pm, Sat 11am-3pm, other days by appointment. This site is visited on the one-day pilgrimage to Birmingham Cathedral.