St. John Henry Newman’s Idea of the Saint – Dr. Rebekah Lamb

Dr. Rebekah Lamb argues that St. John Henry Newman’s idea of the saint is deeply relational: saints are friends knit together in the communion of saints, and holiness is lived through prayer, hidden service, and ordinary fidelity.This lecture was given on February 19th, 2026, at Queen's University, Belfast.For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.About the Speakers:Dr. Rebekah Lamb is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in theology and the arts at the University of St Andrews, specializing in religion and literature of late modernity. Her research centres on the ways in which the arts can be distinctive and timely modes of theology in their own right, especially in light of liturgical, spiritual, and existential concerns. Key figures in her work include Joseph Ratzinger, St. John Henry Newman, Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ, Christina Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites as well as their inheritors (JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis, among others). Prior to joining St Andrews, she was an inaugural Étienne Gilson Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. She is a trustee of the Christian Heritage Centre at Stonyhurst (Lancashire, UK) and frequently contributes to popular magazines and journals, including an interview with Robert Cardinal Sarah for the Catholic Herald.Keywords: Communion of Saints, Friendship, Hidden Holiness, Newman, Prayer, Sacramental Vision, Saint John Henry Newman, Spiritual Friendship, Ordinary Life, Virtue