The English Roman Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman has had the path to beatification cleared by the Vatican, it has been reported.
A theological panel has agreed that a miracle can be attributed to the 19th century cardinal.
But a second miracle is still required before he can be canonized as a saint.
Newman, who founded the Birmingham Oratory and was known for his work with the poor, converted to Catholicism in 1845. He died in 1890.
The panel investigated a claim that Jack Sullivan, a deacon from Boston, Massachusetts, was cured of a serious spinal disease after praying to the cardinal.
If he were beatified, Newman would become the first non-martyred English saint since before the Reformation.
The step-by-step process for his beatification began at the Birmingham Oratory in the late 1950s.
It continued with Pope John Paul II declaring Newman to be Venerable in January 1991.
