About the Icon

On July 31, 2025, Pope Leo XIV affirmed Saint John Henry Newman as a “Doctor of the Universal Church,” with the title to be officially conferred on November 1, 2025.

Shortly after Newman's death in 1890, "Newman Clubs" began to spread across secular college campuses in the United States, offering Catholic students a way to nurture their faith during their college years. While the Harvard Catholic Center, founded in 1893, has been known by various names, it has never adopted the term “Newman Center.” Nevertheless, Saint John Henry Newman remains a guiding figure for our students and a patron saint for the Catholic Center.

To mark Saint John Henry Newman’s canonization on October 13, 2019, Rev. William T. Kelly, Pastor and Senior Chaplain, commissioned Bulgarian artist Agnessa, based in Sophia, to create an icon of Newman. The icon was crafted in honor of John “Jack” Reardon AB'60, a dedicated supporter of Catholic students at Harvard. The same artist also painted the icons in the Chapel of the Women Doctors at the Harvard Catholic Center. Displayed beneath the icon is Newman's poem, "The Pillar of the Cloud," and information about his life.

The icon features imagery significant to Saint John Henry Newman’s life and legacy: Great St. Mary’s Chapel (Anglican) in Oxford, England where John Henry Newman served as vicar, and the standing desk is from Newman’s library at the Birmingham Oratory where he wrote many of his most famous works including “Apologia Pro Vita Sua." 

Please visit the Saint John Henry Newman icon the next time you’re at St. Paul’s. For more information, please read the short biography of Saint John Henry Newman written by Father George Salzmann, graduate chaplain.