St Thomas More & St John Fisher – 22nd June

Why Their Feast Day Matters Today

The Feast of Saints Thomas More and John Fisher reminds Catholics that:

Truth is worth defending.

Faithfulness may require sacrifice.

Conscience should not be surrendered to political pressure.

Loyalty to Christ comes before worldly power.

Holiness can be lived in public life as well as in the Church.

Their witness continues to inspire Christians, lawyers, politicians, bishops, educators, and all who seek to remain faithful to God in challenging times. Their feast on June 22 is a cebration of courage, integrity, and unwavering fidelity to Christ and His Church.

Spiritual Lessons from Their Lives

Fidelity to Conscience: Both men teach that conscience must be formed by truth and obeyed faithfully.

Courage: They stood against enormous political pressure.

Integrity: They chose death rather than compromise their beliefs.

Loyalty to Christ: Their highest allegiance was to God.

Defense of the Church: They defended the Church’s unity and apostolic authorit

Saints Thomas More and John Fisher – 22nd June

The Catholic Church celebrates Saints Thomas More and John Fisher together on the 22nd of June each year. This feast honors two English martyrs who remained faithful to the Catholic faith and the authority of the Pope during the religious turmoil of the English Reformation under King Henry VIII.

Why Are They Celebrated Together?

Although they came from different backgrounds—one a bishop and the other a statesman—they shared:

Deep Catholic faith

Loyalty to the Church

Courage of conscience

Refusal to compromise truth

Martyrdom for defending the unity of the Church

Both were executed in 1535 because they would not accept King Henry VIII as the supreme head of the Church in England.

Saint Thomas More

He was born on the 7th of February, 1478 in London. He was a lawyer, humanist scholar, author, statesman and Lord Chancellor of England. He wrote the famous book called “Utopia”. Thomas More was widely regarded as one of the most brilliant minds of his age.

Why Was He Martyred?

As Lord Chancellor, More opposed Henry VIII’s break from Rome.

He refused to swear an oath recognizing:

The king’s supremacy over the Church

The invalidity of the Pope’s authority in England

More chose silence rather than public opposition, but his refusal was interpreted as resistance.

Death

He was executed on the 6th of July, 1535 at the age of 57 in a place called Tower Hill. He was beheaded. His famous final words were:

“I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” These words have become one of the most famous testimonies of Christian conscience.

Canonization

He was beatified in 1886 and canonized on the 19th of May, 1935 by Pope Pius XI.

Their Martyrdom

Both saints are recognized as martyrs because:

They died for the Catholic faith.

They defended the unity of the Church.

They refused to violate their consciences.

They remained faithful to the Pope despite political pressure.

Their deaths became powerful symbols of fidelity to Christ and truth.

Patronages

Saint Thomas More

Patron saint of:

Lawyers

Politicians

Statesmen

Government officials

Public servants

In 2000, Pope John Paul II declared him the patron saint of statesmen and politicians.

0622 St Thomas More & St John Fisher 2p LETTER R1R 20260221

0622 St Thomas More & St John Fisher 2p A4 R1R 20260221

St. Thomas More spent his life studying, learning, and writing about the faith so that his life and work may be an example to all those after him. He shows us that we can be in the world, and in our governments, but that we must always keep our eyes fixed on God first. His resilient desire to serve God “first”, and the King “second”, cost him his life. But even at death’s door, he wished his judges that they would all be united in Heaven, in “Everlasting Salvation”. What a heroic virtue of forgiveness of his acusers – and something that we can draw strength from. When we are faced with making a decision to follow the world or God – let us draw from St. Thomas More, and always choose God first.

Prayer To St Thomas More

Holy martyr for the Church, you used your talents
to bring God’s love and mercy to earth. Yet you
realized that human fame and glory were
momentary and fleeting.
In your practice of law, you understood and were
loyal first to God’s eternal law spoken through the
successors of the Apostles. While a servant of
the king, you were a servant to the Church first.
Help me to see that loyalty to God’s laws must be
the first part of my ties and responsibilities with
others. Strengthen me to seek out what the
Church teaches. Give me the wisdom to make the
right choice, and the fortitude to carry it out. This
I ask through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.
… St Thomas More, Pray for Us …

A Prayer to Saint Thomas More for Lawyers

Thomas More, counselor of law and statesman of integrity, merry martyr and most human of saints:
Pray that, for the glory of God and in the pursuit of His justice, I may be trustworthy with confidences, keen in study, accurate in analysis, correct in conclusion, able in argument, loyal to clients, honest with all, courteous to adversaries, ever attentive to conscience. Sit with me at my desk and listen with me to my clients’ tales. Read with me in my library and stand always beside me so that today I shall not, to win a point, lose my soul.
Pray that my family may find in me what yours found in you: friendship and courage, cheerfulness and charity, diligence in duties, counsel in adversity, patience in pain—their good servant, and God’s first.
Amen.

Prayer for Good Humor by St. Thomas More

Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest.
Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.
Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good
and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil,
but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.
Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments,
nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”
Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor.
Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy,
and to be able to share it with others.

Saint John Fisher

Again we see another life of a saint who was a martyr for the faith that you and I so freely practice today. Without the heroic defending of the faith of these great saints before us, we would not have our religious freedoms today. St. Fisher was so solid in his conviction of the Catholic faith, that he was willing to be beheaded. He stood for God anyway. How many of us are willing to defend the church and stand with God for the faith that is so many times, tested today? By calling on St. Fisher asking his intercession, we can draw from his the courage needed to defend our faith in these times.

Prayer for Holy Bishops by Saint John Fisher

Lord, according to Thy promise that the Gospel should be preached throughout the whole world, raise up men fit for such work. The Apostles were but soft and yielding clay till they were baked hard by the fire of the Holy Ghost. So, good Lord, do now in like manner with Thy Church militant, change and make the soft and slippery earth into hard stones. Set in the Thy Church strong and mighty pillars that may suffer and endure great labors–watching, poverty, thirst, hunger, cold and heat–which also shall not fear the threatening of princes, persecution, neither death, but always persuade and think with themselves to suffer with a good will, slanders, shame, and all kinds of torments, for the glory and laud of Thy Holy Name. By this manner, good Lord, the truth of Thy Gospel shall be preached throughout the world. Therefore, merciful Lord, exercise Thy mercy, show it indeed upon Thy Church.

Amen

Seven Daily Prayers of Saint John Fisher

Sunday
O blessed Jesu, make me to love Thee entirely.
Monday
O blessed Jesu, I would fain, but without Thy help I cannot.
Tuesday
O blessed Jesu, let me deeply consider the greatness of Thy love towards me.
Wednesday
O blessed Jesu, give unto me grace heartily to thank Thee for Thy benefits.
Thursday
O blessed Jesu, give me good will to serve Thee and to suffer.
Friday
O sweet Jesu, give me a natural remembrance of Thy Passion.
Saturday
O sweet Jesu, possess my heart, hold and keep it only to Thee.