The nineteenth century saw a great revival of the Catholic Faith in Great Britain, gaining even more momentum after the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 which reduced and removed the severe legal restrictions, civil disabilities, and penal laws under which Catholics in the British Isles had lived since the Reformation.

The early years saw a concentration on establishing missions, or parishes, to serve the ever-increasing Catholic population and building churches and schools, but by1850 the Church in England and Wales was sufficiently confident for the Pope to restore the episcopal hierarchy, creating new Catholic dioceses and appointing bishops to them. In 1853 the new bishops held their first synod at St Mary's College, Oscott, during which St John Henry Newman preached his famous sermon The Second Spring.

In this historic homily, Newman used the metaphor of a second spring to portray the revival of Catholicism in the nation, drawing a parallel between nature's renewal and the rebirth of faith. Speaking lyrically of England's Catholic past, and the witness of its saints and martyrs through the centuries, he looked forward to a fresh burgeoning of sanctity in the years to come.

This book presents nine short biographies of Catholics who through their lives and works could be said to merit the soubriquet 'Saints of the Second Spring'; some, indeed are already on the road towards canonisation.

Blessed Dominic Barberi, CP