The Vatican has ordered that the body of Cardinal Newman, the Church of England’s most renowned convert to Roman Catholicism, be exhumed and reinterred in a marble sarcophagus, where it can be more easily venerated by the faithful.

The Causes of Saints wants the remains of John Henry Newman, who died in 1890, to be moved from a secluded cemetery and placed in the Birmingham Oratory, part of the English Oratory movement that he founded.

The declaration, expected in December, could coincide with the announcement of a new deal for English traditionalists who want to “go over” to Rome with their congregations in protest at moves to consecrate women bishops in the Church of England.

The Cardinal, already a Venerable, is expected to take the next step up the ladder to sainthood this year when Pope Benedict XVI declares him “Blessed”. He would be the ideal saint for converts to Rome. He was the founder of the Anglo-Catholic Oxford Movement revival in the 19th century and advocated a “via media” for the Church of England. But eventually he could no longer walk it himself and was received by Rome in 1845, and created a cardinal eventually.

Medics investigating the Newman cause have already validated one miracle. Another would be needed before he took the final step to sainthood, however, at least one other person claiming a miraculous cure after praying for the cardinal’s intercession is known to be waiting to testify.

Cardinal Newman, founder of the English Oratory of St Philip Neri, died in Edgbaston, Birmingham, on August 11, 1890, aged 89. His funeral Mass was held a week later when more than 15,000 people lined the route as his cortège made its way to the Oratory House at Rednal, on the outskirts of Birmingham, where he was buried in a small, secluded cemetery used by other members of his community.

After the exhumation, which must first be authorised by the British authorities, the body of Cardinal Newman would be put in a specially made, simple, marble sarcophagus and placed in the Birmingham Oratory.

Father Paul Chavasse, Provost of the Birmingham Oratory and postulator of the Newman cause, said: “One of the centuries-old procedures surrounding the creating of new saints by the Catholic Church concerns their earthly remains. These have to be identified, preserved and, if necessary, placed in a new setting which befits the individual’s new status in the Church. This is what we have been asked to do by the Vatican with regard to Cardinal Newman’s remains, which have laid at Rednal since his death in 1890. We hope that Cardinal Newman’s new resting place in the Oratory Church in Birmingham will enable more people to come and pay their respects to him, and perhaps light a candle there.”

Father Chavasse and the Archdiocese of Birmingham have begun negotiating with Sir Suma Chakrabarti, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice, to obtain the necessary permission to exhume the body.

Peter Jennings, from the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory for the Newman Cause, said: “At the request of the Congregation for Saints no announcement whatsoever will be made in advance of Newman’s body being moved from the cemetery to his new resting place at the Birmingham Oratory.”