If we are to grasp the significance of Newman's determination to remain in his burial place ad sanctos, we should not lose sight of his appreciation of the "entry of the saints" - the legitimacy of "translating the Saints" to the city churches. It is just that he did not want it "for himself". He wanted to point away from himself to the community of the Oratorians in the Communion of Saints. 

There was, inevitably, a tension between these twin desiderata. Newman's settled determination to remain ad sanctos was perhaps designed to remind the Church of  something she had tended to forget. Saints do not become saints on their own. Saints have a way of getting their way. When his grave was opened in 2009, Newman's coffin was found to have disintegrated. His mortal remains had returned to dust. Those who were present recorded an awed, inward sentiment of recognition. There was, so to speak, a revelation of the grave as not, after all, a final resting place, but a gateway to the resurrection. At that moment, as by a trick of Providence, the final volume of Newman's Letters and Diaries was published. The editor, Dr Frank McGrath, quietly pointed to a document which seemed to make the point without fuss: Newman had requested that his body be allowed to return, as in the Church's prayer, "dust to dust, ashes to ashes". 

The Church, however, also got her way. A reliquary containing some shreds of Newman's hair and part of his coffin was placed in a side-chapel at the Birmingham Oratory, where the faithful have not hesitated to welcome his "entry" and to pray ad sanctos.