St. Thomas More
Patron of Lawyers
Died: 1535
St. Thomas More, Martyr (Patron of Lawyers) St. Thomas More was born at London in 1478. After a thorough grounding in religion and the classics, he entered Oxford to study law. Upon leaving the university he embarked on a legal career which took him to Parliament. In 1505, he married his beloved Jane Colt who bore him four children, andwhen she died at a young age, he married a widow, Alice Middleton, to be a mother for his young children. A wit and a reformer, this learned man numbered Bishops and scholars among his friends, and by 1516 wrote his world-famous book "Utopia". He attracted the attention of Henry VIII who appointed him to a succession of high posts and missions, and finally made him Lord Chancellor in 1529. However, he resigned in 1532, at the height of his career and reputation, when Henry persisted in holding his own opinions regarding marriage and the supremacy of the Pope. The rest of his life was spent in writing mostly in defense of the Church. In 1534, with his close friend, St. John Fisher, he refused to render allegiance to the King as the Head of the Church of England and was confined to the Tower. Fifteen months later, and nine days after St. John Fisher's execution, he was tried and convicted of treason. He told the court that he could not go against his conscience and wished his judges that "we may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together to everlasting salvation." And on the scaffold, he told the crowd of spectators that he was dying as "the King's good servant-but God's first." He was beheaded on July 6, 1535. His feast day is June 22nd.
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St. Thomas More, pray for ous sinners. Make our offerings to God a sweet and good for Jesus sakes. We need more soup kitchens to feed the hungry. More clothing places to clothe the naked. St. Thomas More. Please send more workers to pray for the sick and the infirm. They need God more than anyone else. St. Thomas More. We trust that you will send priests to prison and to offer sacramental offerings to the death row people who are facing death and uncertainty. Please, St. Thomas More, hear our prayer.
I CAN'T HELP BUT THINK OF EXODUS WHENEVER SOMEONE THINKS WHAT WAS DONE TO PROTECT THE CHURCH WAS WRONG:
EXOD 32:[26] then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Who is on the LORD's side? Come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.
[27] And he said to them, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel, `Put every man his sword on his side, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.'"
[28] And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses; and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
[29] And Moses said, "Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and of his brother, that he may bestow a blessing upon you this day."
[30]
Can someone clarify a bit the part where it says he approved of burning heretics at the stake? I know it was something done by both protestants and Catholics, but wouldn't this have been a reason not to make him a saint?
Thomas Moore burned heretics at the stake. How could he be possibly considered a saint? If the Catholic church still considers him a saint they are as bad now as they were then. How can someone pray to a man who burned people at the stake for distributing banned books? From Wikipedia on his burning heretics at the stake: " In total there were six burned at the stake for heresy during More's chancellorship: Thomas Hitton, Thomas Bilney, Richard Bayfield, John Tewkesbery, Thomas Dusgate, and James Bainham.[10]:299–306 More's influential role in the burning of Tyndale is reported by Moynahan.[24] Burning at the stake had long been a standard punishment for heresy—about thirty burnings had taken place in the century before More's elevation to Chancellor, and burning continued to be used by both Catholics and Protestants during the religious upheaval of the following decades.[25] Ackroyd notes that More explicitly "approved of Burning"[10]:298 After the case of John Tewkesbury, a London leather-seller found guilty by More of harbouring banned books and sentenced to burning for refusing to recant, More declared: he "burned as there was neuer wretche I wene better worthy."[26]
Historians have been long divided over More's religious actions as Chancellor. While biographers such as Ackroyd have taken a relatively tolerant view of More's campaign against Protestantism by placing his actions within the turbulent religious climate of the time, other equally eminent historians, such as Richard Marius, have been more critical, believing that persecutions --including what he perceives as the advocacy of extermination for Protestants -- were a betrayal of More's earlier humanist convictions. As Marius writes in his biography of More: "To stand before a man at an inquisition, knowing that he will rejoice when we die, knowing that he will commit us to the stake and its horrors without a moment's hesitation or remorse if we do not satisfy him, is not an experience much less cruel because our inquisitor does not whip us or rack us or shout at us. . . More believed that they (Protestants) should be exterminated, and while he was in office he did everything in his power to bring that extermination to pass."[27]
St. Thomas More, please pray forme to seek and obey God's will in whatever I do.
St. Thomas Moor, I pray you to intercede for all Catholic youth so that they may lose their entire life for Jesus and thus gain their souls for eternal life. I pray for your intersession to overcome all temptations of this world especially that are against chastity and faithfulness to our families. Kindly help us to control our eyes. The whole world is so blind that most of the youth have lost the consciousness of sin and they lead a life as per the wish of their body. St.Thomas Moor, help us we pray, to be always conscious about eternal life and to set heavenly life our prime target in life. We do not want to become rich, we do not want to become famous, we want only to be faithful to Jesus and thus lead a saintly life like you.
My cousin T was to his wife M.ellen married at St Thomas More NYC Labor Day Weekend late 80's.
A beautiful gem of a church for a beautiful sacrament.
St. Thomas More, your life is an inspiration to us. Regardless of your stature, you did not fall under the authority of unrighteousness of King Henry VIII. Your allegiance was to our Lord almighty, Jesus Christ, the King of all Kings. You suffered and died for Him and now there is nothing greater than the reward fo everlasting life with Him in Heaven. Your name is very significant to me because it was the Catholic church named after you, that I went to and chosen as the venue for the exposition of the Sacred Relics of Saints. It was in your church that I received healing from our Lord through your intercession and those of the Saints. St, Thomas More, please continue to intercede and pray for my well-being and those of my loved ones, in the name of Jesus..
Please Saint Thomas More, please pray for Jacob that he finds the right path and for his parents that the find the strenghtand wisdom to guide him. Thank you.
St. Thomas More, delighted am I to have prayed and worshiped in the Church of the English Martyrs in Reading. The church honours you for your fidelity to Christ's teaching and to the Pope. You are the patron saint of lawyers. Guard and guide us to have wisdom and honesty in our dealings regarding legal issues, to be truly compassionate and loving in God's name. St. Thomas More I recommend my intentions for a legal matter to be concluded in a just and honest manner. Please free all family members of greedy and avaricious feelings. Saintly wisdom and wit was your peculiar gift too,which would like to have and emulate. St. Thomas More pray for me. Amen.
it was longggg! but it helped me! :)
I just wantd to ask, why did King Henry behead him? Like, what does this mean: "he refused to render allegiance to the King as the Head of the Church of England "
Seek spirit of guidence :Kindly send me original " A Lawyers Prayer "by Saint Thomas More . Indebted W.T.O.
thanks
The article is rather short and very good. The video is not bad, but sadly at approx min 4:30 has a serious incosistency. The young girl says that More upset Henry VIII because "he (More) did not marry Catherine of Aragon to him for she was already married to Henry's (dead) brother" using this as the reason for Henry being upset at Thomas More when it had nothing to do with it. In fact, she completely missed the point. Henry recieved a dispensation from the Pope to marry Katherine. Hence the marriage was completely valid, More accepted that fact and it was because of that same fact that he was killed. It was Henry that was trying to use the "he was my brother's wife" aliby to nullify the marriage. For which Thomas More would say (paraphrase) "How can Henry receive a dispensation - an annulment- from a dispensation (to marry his brothers widow) which he needed to marry Catherine in the first place. Hence, he accepted Catherine's marriage as real, hence he could not accept Henry's false marriage to Anne Bolyn & eventual separation from the See of Peter- as established by Christ himself...both being reasons why he was killed; albeit through the direct perjury of Richard Rich of which most do not bother to mention.
The More article?
A good one, not too long and not too short.
"I entirely detest heretics, and as Magistrate do promise assiduously to perform my duty in investigating them. Heresy is a kind of treason, and if a heretic persisteth in his false belief, he may be handed over to be burned."
St. Thomas More
Getting baptised at 41, just graduated from law school, St. Thomas is my confirmation Saint...cool.
cool beans
Hi(: St. Thomas More has good information!