This poem by Saint John Henry Newman, English theologist, Catholic priest and poet of the 19th century portrays the story of a dead man's soul as it leaves from his deathbed into his final judgement. In it, Gerontius, literally translating to an old man in Greek, dies a faithful and pious death and then turns into "The Soul" that ends up into the Purgatory by God's last judgement. Very thought-provoking for a Catholic text, the poem offers a philosophical scope and a skepticism in a poetic style not unlike Dante's.
John Henry Newman was a Roman Catholic priest and cardinal who converted to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism in October 1845. In early life, he was a major figure in the Oxford Movement to bring the Church of England back to its Catholic roots.
Eventually his studies in history persuaded him to become a Roman Catholic. Both before and after becoming a Roman Catholic, he wrote a number of influential books.
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