John Henry Newman founds the first Oratory…

John Henry Newman founds the first Oratory in the English-speaking world, when he establishes the Birmingham Oratory at 'Maryvale', Old Oscott, England, on February 2, 1848.

Newman, after his conversion to the Catholic Church, had been seeking a way of life to live out his vocation.

In common with a colleague from the Oxford Movement and fellow convert, Frederick William Faber, he had felt drawn to the way of life of the community founded by St. Philip Neri in Italy in the sixteenth century.

When Newman went to Rome in 1845 to become a Catholic priest, he had received authorization from Pope Pius IX to establish a community of the Oratory in England.

Returning to England in 1847, Newman had gathered a small community of his followers who also wished to live this life.

They initially find a home in Birmingham at the Church of St. Anne on Alcester Street, which will become the first house of an Oratorian community in England in 1849.