Cardinal maybe going round part of church showed sign of life (8)

I believe the answer is:

respired

'showed sign of life' is the definition.
(respiring is breathing)

'cardinal maybe going round part of church' is the wordplay.
'cardinal maybe' becomes 'red' (cardinal is a shade of red).
'going round' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters go around others).
'part of church' becomes 'spire'.
'red' enclosing 'spire' is 'RESPIRED'.

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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