The bones of the Victorian cardinal who is in line to become Britain’s first saint for almost 40 years have disintegrated, hampering plans to turn his final resting place into a centre of Christian pilgrimage.

Church officials exhuming the body of Cardinal John Henry Newman were surprised to discover that his grave was almost empty when it was opened on Thursday. All that remained were a brass plate and handles from Newman’s coffin, along with a few red tassels from his cardinal’s hat.

The discovery will not affect Newman’s case for sainthood. But officials have had to abandon plans to transfer his bones from a rural cemetery in Rednal, Worcestershire, to a marble sarcophagus at Birmingham Oratory, which Newman founded after converting to Catholicism from the Church of England.

Thousands of worshippers were expected to descend on the Oratory from the end of this month to pay their respects to Newman and seek his intercession. Now the Oratory is left with only a few locks of his hair. Some of his remains were also to have been sent to the Vatican.

Times Archive, 1890: The funeral of Cardinal Newman

His dearest friend lies in the same grave - Ambrose St John, died 1875 - and the luxuriant bed of St John's wort in yellow flower which runs down one side of the small enclosure was grown in memory of him

Newman is expected to be beatified in December following claims that he was responsible for a miracle in which an American clergyman was “cured” of a crippling spinal disorder. This would gain him the title “Blessed”, one step short of sainthood, which will require the Vatican to verify a second miracle.

“I have been visiting that grave since I was a very young boy,” said Peter Jennings, a spokesman for the Oratory. “I will never forget how I felt, standing there last Thursday, looking at this deep hole which had been dug out. This was the greatest churchman of the 19th century and there was nothing there, only dust.”

There is no conspiracy theory over what has become of Newman’s remains: experts believe that damp conditions led to their complete decomposition.

The decision to exhume Newman’s body had been fiercely resisted by gay rights campaigners because the priest had asked to be buried close to the body of Father Ambrose St John, a lifelong friend. With Newman’s grave now lying empty, the controversy is expected to fade away, sparing the Vatican any possible embarrassment over claims that the priest was a closet homosexual.

Newman, who was born in London, was ordained in 1824 and led the Oxford movement in the 1830s to draw Anglicans back towards their Catholic roots. He shocked Victorian society when he converted to Rome in 1845. A file on Newman’s “cause” for sainthood was opened in 1958, but the miracle attributed to him took place only in 2001.

Last week Vatican theologians met to discuss the healing of Jack Sullivan, 76, of Massachusetts, who recovered from a debilitating spinal condition after invoking Newman’s name in prayer. The theologians asked for more time to study the case but medical experts have already concluded that Sullivan’s recovery has no scientific explanation.

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