St. Thomas More, Martyr

St. Thomas More
Had a rough Fifteen Thirty-Four.
He was left in the lurch
When King Henry confounded the Church.

More's years of experience in King Henry's service told him that the king would get what he wanted -- in this case, it was principally Anne Boleyn -- but More's conscience would not allow him to publicly state that the King had greater spiritual authority than the Pope. At the same time, his prudence prevented him from publicly or privately stating that the King did not have greater spiritual authority. Nevertheless, More was arrested and confined to the Tower of London in 1534. The following year, in a trial of questionable propriety, he was found guilty of treason against the Crown and sentenced to death. In recognition of the high office More once held, King Henry commuted the sentence from hanging, drawing, and quartering, to a simple beheading. Thomas More was executed on July 6, 1535.

He was canonized in 1935.

St. Thomas was a devout Catholic who wrote with great learning and passion in defense of the Catholic faith against the heresies of his day. As a young man, he had considered joining the Carthusian order of monks, and throughout his life he practiced acts of self-denial and self-discipline to maintain something of the connection with God the Carthusians enjoyed by virtue of their lifestyle.

St. Thomas was, by all accounts, an exceptionally gifted man, whose intelligence, wisdom, wit, charity, and justice rank him as among the greatest men of his era.

On October 31, 2000, Pope John Paul II issued a Motu Proprio declaring "Saint Thomas More the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians."

Return to my Patron Saints page.