Ambrose St. John

Ambrose St. John

Ambrose St. John (1815 – 24 May1875 Edgbaston, Birmingham, 24 May1875) was an English Oratorian. He is now best known as a close friend of Cardinal John Henry Newman.

Life

He was the son of Henry St. John, descended from the Barons St. John of Bletsoe. He was educated at Westminster School, and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated M. A. and where he formed his lifelong friendship with Newman.

In 1841 he became curate to Henry Wilberforce, first at Walmer, subsequently at East Farleigh. He then joined Newman at Littlemore which he left, on his conversion to the Catholic Church, about a month before Newman's conversion in October, 1845. After a short time spent with Newman at Maryvale he accompanied him to Rome where they were ordained priests.

Having become Oratorians, they began mission work in Birmingham (1847), removing to the suburb of Edgbaston in 1852. There he devoted himself entirely to missionary work, taking a leading part in the work of the Birmingham Oratory and its school.

He was a classical scholar and a linguist both in Oriental and European tongues. His death was caused by overwork in translating Josef Fessler's book on papal infallibility, when Newman's discussion with William Gladstone was pending.

He was a man of marked individuality and Newman paid tribute to him in his "Apologia". In "The Dream of Gerontius", Edward Elgar's piece based on Newman's poem, the character of the Guardian Angel is considered to be based on St. John [Byron Adams, in "The Cambridge Companion to Elgar" (2005), p. 90.] .

Newman wrote after the death of Ambrose St John in 1875: "I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband's or a wife's, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or any one's sorrow greater, than mine."

In accordance with his expressed wishes, in 1890 Newman was buried in the grave of his lifelong companion, Ambrose St. John [Alan Bray, "The Friend" (2003), pp. 303-4.] . Previously, they had shared a house. The pall over the coffin bore his cardinal's motto Cor ad cor loquitur ("Heart speaks to heart"). Inseparable in death as in life, the two men have a joint memorial stone that is inscribed with the words he had chosen: Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem ("Out of shadows and phantasms into the truth"). In 2008, Newman's remains in the shared grave were planned to be exhumed and moved to the Oratory in Birmingham city centre in preparation for Newman's canonization.

References

*Gasquet, "Lord Acton and his Circle" (London, 1906)
*Gorman, "Converts to Rome" (London, 1910)

Notes

External links

* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13354a.htm "Catholic Encyclopedia" article]
* [http://www.theoratory.org.uk/TheOratory/Community/FAmbroseMariaStJohn/tabid/99/Default.aspx Page at The Oratory, Birmingham]


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