Cardinal's grave items go on show

Items from the grave of a 19th Century Roman Catholic cardinal are to be placed in a casket in the Birmingham Oratory, the church has announced.

Cardinal John Henry Newman's remains were to be put in a sarcophagus in the church in preparation for his anticipated beatification.

But no body was found when the grave in Rednal, Worcestershire, was exhumed.

Instead, a lock of hair, a cross and clothing found in the wooden coffin and some of its wood will go in the casket.

Body decomposed

Newman is in line to become the first non-martyred English saint since before the Reformation.

In 1970 40 martyrs from England and Wales from the Reformation were made saints.

However, in order for Newman to be beatified - the next stage in the process towards sainthood - a miracle needs to be credited to him by the Vatican.

It requested the grave was excavated as it is investigating claims that Jack Sullivan, a deacon from Boston, Massachusetts, claimed to have been cured of a spinal disease after praying to the cardinal.

A second miracle would need to be credited to Newman before he could be canonised and made a saint.

The items are due to be placed in the glass-sided casket in the Upper Cloister Hall at the Birmingham Oratory, on Friday 31 October.

The church has said Newman's body is thought to have decomposed as the coffin was not lined with lead.

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