Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More

Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More were two great Englishmen who gave their lives in 1535 rather than betray their conscience and their faith by acknowledging King Henry VIII as supreme head of the Church in England, and they are honored together as martyrs of that troubled age. Though different in state of life, the bishop and the layman were alike in learning, integrity, and unshakable loyalty to the unity of the Church under the successor of Peter.

John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, a renowned scholar and the only bishop of the realm to resist the king, was created a cardinal while imprisoned in the Tower and was beheaded for denying the royal supremacy. Thomas More, the king's own Lord Chancellor, a brilliant humanist, statesman, and author, resigned his high office and, after long imprisonment, went to his death with serene courage and even wit, declaring himself "the king's good servant, but God's first." Canonized together in 1935, they are celebrated on 22 June.