Lot 356A
CARDINAL JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 4-PAGE LETTER SIGNED & DATED 1871. Written on a folded four page leaf of laid paper measuring 6” x 8”, Newman responds to an admirer who has himself converted to the Catholic faith due to Newman’s writings. Bold and clear with good content and framed with two images of Newman. The dateline is the famous Oratory and is inscribed July 4, 1871, in Newman’s own hand it reads; “The Oratory, July 4, 1871. My dear Sir: I cannot not tell whether I answered your letter of December last, if I did not, I hope you will excuse me, on the ground of the many letters which I have to write. I congratulate you on your conversion, and on the religious and genuine feelings with which you respect the position of the Church, and the relation of individuals to her. Thank you too for the language which you use about myself. Of course it is a great pleasure to me to be told that what I have written has contributed to make your path clear to you. As to your difficulty and question, what in the world have you to do with the Blessed Margaret Mary? No one asks you or wishes you to use the language of the Canticles. It would be very wrong of you, as you so justly feel and say, to have those intimate relations and that divine friendship with our Lord, which a saint has, who has lived in prayer and fasting for years and years, and has been visited with special gifts and graces. When St. Peter said “Lord and what shall this man do?” our Lord answered “What is that to thee?” and if apostle might not be curious about apostle, much less must we be critical and inquisitorial about the special servants of God. This, my dear sir, I doubt but you have felt by this time, by God’s mercy to be the true answer to your question and so far I am not sorry that my answer to you has been delayed, if so (for you will more fruitfully and profitably grow into Catholic truth by the action of your own mind than possess yourself of it by the words of another) May God bless you, and enlighten and guide you, and keep you from all false reasoning’s and religious errors. I am Dear Sir, Yours very truly John H. Newman.” The “Blessed Margaret Mary” is no doubt Margaret Mary Alacoque, the French Nun who had numerous visions of Jesus and which she thought were a normal part of human experience. It was through her vision of Christ and His Sacred Heart (circa 1673) in which the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was first fostered. She was beatified (made Blessed) in the year 1864 by Pope Pius IX, only seven years prior to the date of this letter. A lovely hand written letter showing the patience, charity and good instruction Newman dispensed to those truth seekers whom often availed themselves to his guidance.
Estimate:  $500 - 1,000   € 400 - 800

Price Realized: $1,080.00