diff --git a/backend/src/main/java/edu/internet2/tier/shibboleth/admin/ui/opensaml/OpenSamlObjects.java b/backend/src/main/java/edu/internet2/tier/shibboleth/admin/ui/opensaml/OpenSamlObjects.java
index 3a7114eb0..8a25b0855 100644
--- a/backend/src/main/java/edu/internet2/tier/shibboleth/admin/ui/opensaml/OpenSamlObjects.java
+++ b/backend/src/main/java/edu/internet2/tier/shibboleth/admin/ui/opensaml/OpenSamlObjects.java
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 import net.shibboleth.utilities.java.support.component.ComponentInitializationException;
 import net.shibboleth.utilities.java.support.xml.BasicParserPool;
 import net.shibboleth.utilities.java.support.xml.ParserPool;
+import net.shibboleth.utilities.java.support.xml.XMLParserException;
 import org.opensaml.core.config.ConfigurationService;
 import org.opensaml.core.config.InitializationException;
 import org.opensaml.core.xml.XMLObject;
@@ -15,6 +16,7 @@
 import org.opensaml.core.xml.io.MarshallingException;
 import org.opensaml.core.xml.io.Unmarshaller;
 import org.opensaml.core.xml.io.UnmarshallerFactory;
+import org.opensaml.core.xml.io.UnmarshallingException;
 import org.opensaml.saml.saml2.metadata.EntityDescriptor;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
@@ -130,6 +132,17 @@ public EntityDescriptor unmarshalFromXml(byte[] entityDescriptorXml) throws Exce
         }
     }
 
+    public <T> T unmarshallFromXml(byte[] xml, Class<T> type) throws IOException, XMLParserException, UnmarshallingException {
+        try (InputStream is = ByteSource.wrap(xml).openBufferedStream()) {
+            Document d = this.parserPool.parse(is);
+            Unmarshaller unmarshaller = this.unmarshallerFactory.getUnmarshaller(d.getDocumentElement());
+            if (unmarshaller != null) {
+                return type.cast(unmarshaller.unmarshall(d.getDocumentElement()));
+            }
+            return null;
+        }
+    }
+
     // TODO: yeah, I'm not happy with this...
     public <T extends XMLObject> T buildDefaultInstanceOfType(Class<T> type) {
         try {