Newman Studies Journal

Volume 3, Issue 1, Spring 2006

Michael Pino
Pages 34-44

The Church Calendar in John Henry Newman’s Loss and Gain

Victorian devotional life, both Anglican and Roman Catholic, often focused on the feast days of the Church. Indeed, even the three academic sessions at Oxford University were named after the feast days at the beginning of each term: Michaelmas (St. Michael, September 29), Hilary (January 14), and Trinity (First Sunday after Pentecost); similarly, events on the ecclesiastical calendar often anchored events in Victorian religious novels. This article explores the possible symbolism in the feast days that frame events in Newman’s novel, Loss and Gain.