Who is Saint Thomas More?

“I die, good servant of the king, and of God first. » Why do these few words, pronounced by Thomas More, in front of the people of London who were present at his beheading on July 6, 1535, still resonate today, five hundred years later? in the city, was confronted with problems analogous to those of our time, at a time full of similarities with ours. Chancellor of the King of England Henry VIII, Thomas More refused, in the name of his conscience and his loyalty to the Church, to approve the totalitarian choices of the latter. He will be condemned to death for high treason. By his life, ended with martyrdom, and his thought, Thomas More, with his unalterable humor, can help the man of the 21st century to question himself and to rebuild himself.

Jacques Mulliez, Thomas More specialist.

A quote

I am criticized for mixing jokes, pranks and joyous remarks on the most serious subjects. With Horace, I think you can tell the truth by laughing. No doubt also it is better suited to the lay person that I am to transmit his thoughts in a light-hearted and playful way, rather than in a serious and solemn way, like preachers. (Saint Thomas More – L’utopia)

Prayer by Thomas More

“Give me good digestion, Lord, and also something to digest. Give me health of the body with the sense to keep it at its best, give me a holy soul, Lord, with eyes on beauty and purity, so that it will not be terrified when it sees the sin, but will know how to straighten out the situation. Give me a soul that ignores boredom, groaning and sighing. Don’t let me worry too much for this cumbersome thing I call ‘me’. Lord, give me humor so that I may derive some happiness from this life and benefit others.”

Thomas More in a few dates

February 7, 1478 : Birth of Thomas More in London. Her father is a lawyer.

1492 : Enters the University of Oxford.

1499 : Registered with the bar of lawyers and teaches law.

1503 : made a retreat at the Charterhouse of London.

1504 : Member of Parliament.

1505 : Wife Jane Colt. They will have three daughters and a son.

1510 : Elected judge by the people of London.

1511 : Death of his wife, he remarried with Alice Middleton, widow, mother of two children.

1515 : Undertakes diplomatic and commercial missions in the Netherlands where he writes Utopia.

1523 : Refutes the Protestant theories of Martin Luther.

1529 : Appointed chancellor of the kingdom by Henry VIII, he is very close to the king.

1531 : Refuses to recognize the act of Supremacy which allows the king to take the head of the Church of England and therefore to grant himself the right to divorce, to marry Anne Boleyn.

1532 : Resigns from office.

1533 : Refused to attend the coronation of Anne Boleyn as Queen of England.

1535 : Accused of high treason, he was imprisoned and beheaded on July 6, 1535, in London.

1886 : beatified by Pope Leo XIII.

1935 : canonized by Pope Pius XI.

2000 : Pope John Paul II declares him patron saint of politicians.