St. Thomas More: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers
Updated: Oct 3
Feast day: June 22 (Memorial of Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More, Martyrs)
Patron of: Statesmen, politicians, and lawyers.
About St. Thomas More
St. Thomas More was born in London in 1478, the son of a judge. He studied at Oxford and trained as a lawyer, and for a time he lived with the Carthusian monks, considering a religious vocation, before deciding to marry. He was a devoted husband and father who gave his daughters an education equal to his son's, and his household was known for its prayer, learning, and good humor. A friend of the scholar Erasmus, he wrote the famous book Utopia.
More rose to become a member of Parliament and, in 1529, Lord Chancellor of England. When King Henry VIII sought to annul his marriage and declared himself supreme head of the Church in England, More resigned his office rather than support him. In 1534 he refused to swear the oath required by the Act of Succession, which rejected the pope's authority, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. After more than a year, he was convicted of treason and beheaded on July 6, 1535, declaring that he died "the king's good servant, but God's first." He was canonized in 1935, and in 2000 John Paul II named him patron of statesmen and politicians.
Prayers to St. Thomas More on Daily Catholic Prayers
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