Saint Thomas More

Martyr, Patron of Statesmen and Lawyers
(1478–1535)

Saint Thomas More was born in London on February 7, 1478, the son of Sir John More, a judge of the King's Bench. He received an excellent education, studying first at Oxford and then at the Inns of Court, where he became one of the most distinguished lawyers of his generation. He was a man of extraordinary gifts, learned in Latin and Greek, a brilliant legal mind, a witty conversationalist, a devoted father, and a man of the deepest personal piety, who wore a hair shirt beneath the splendid robes of his office until the day of his arrest.

He rose rapidly in the service of King Henry VIII, becoming a close companion of the king, a member of the Privy Council, Speaker of the House of Commons, and finally Lord Chancellor of England, the highest legal office in the realm, which he held from 1529 to 1532. During these years of power and influence he remained what he had always been, a man who began each day with Mass and prayer, who gave generously to the poor, who was scrupulously fair in his administration of justice, and who governed his large and lively household in Chelsea with humour, affection, and firm Christian principle.

The crisis came with Henry VIII's attempt to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled by the English Church and his subsequent claim to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England. More resigned the chancellorship rather than be associated with these proceedings. When the Act of Supremacy was passed in 1534, declaring the king Head of the Church, More refused to take the oath required by the Act. He was committed to the Tower of London, where he remained for more than a year, maintaining his position with a combination of legal precision and spiritual courage that has never been surpassed in the history of English martyrdom.

He was tried for treason, convicted on the perjured testimony of Richard Rich, and sentenced to death. On the scaffold he declared that he died the King's good servant, but God's first. He was beheaded on July 6, 1535. He was canonised together with Saint John Fisher by Pope Pius XI in 1935 and declared patron of statesmen and politicians by Pope John Paul II in 2000. His feast is celebrated on June 22nd in the current calendar, but he appears in July lists in some older martyrologies.