Saints

St. Thomas More

(1478-1535)

Thomas was born in London, England in 1478. He studied law at Oxford and became a member of Parliament. He married Jane Colt in 1505 and had four children with her. Jane ended up dying at a young age. Thomas married a widow by the name of Alice Middleton. He wrote a world-famous book in 1516 entitled “Utopia”.

In 1529, Henry the VIII made him Lord Chancellor but he resigned in 1532 (at the peak of his career). He resigned because he refused to approve Henry the VIII’s divorce of Catherine of Aragon and remarriage to Anne Boleyn. He also would not approve of Henry the VIII’s establishment of the Church of England, with Henry being the supreme head of that church.

He spent the rest of life defending the Roman Catholic Church. He was banished and confined to the Tower where he was later tried, convicted of treason, and sentenced to death.

When on the scaffold, the executioner offered to blindfold him. He volunteered to do it himself. He the told the spectators that he was dying as “the King’s good servant-but God’s first.” It was reported that when he put his head on the chopping block, he even made a joke. He was beheaded on Tower Hill, London on June 6, 1535.

Thomas More was canonized in 1935. He is the patron saint of lawyers. He memorial is celebrated on June 22 of the Roman Calendar along with his close bishop friend, St. John Fisher.

Summarized and adapted from:
1.Leonard Foley, O.F.M., Editor “Saint of the Day: Lives and Lessons for Saints and Feasts of the New Missal”
2.Joan Carroll Cruz, “Secular Saints: 250 Canonized and Beatified Lay Men, Women, and Children.
3.Hugo Hoever, S.O.Cist., Ph.D.,”Lives of the Saints:For every day of the year”