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Sir Thomas More in fur collar and chain of office, painted by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1527

Saint Thomas More

Lawyer, author of Utopia and Chancellor of England, beheaded for refusing the king’s oath

Patron of
statesmen and politicians
Western calendar
22 June, with Saint John Fisher
Orthodox calendar
Not kept

Thomas More was a London lawyer, a husband and father, the author of Utopia, and in 1529 the first layman to become Chancellor of England. He would not take the oath that went with Henry VIII's break with Rome, and after more than a year in the Tower, writing to his daughter Margaret with a piece of coal when his books and writing materials were taken, he was beheaded for treason on Tower Hill on 6 July 1535. Warned that the king's anger meant death, he had answered, "then, in good faith, between your grace and me is but this, that I shall die today, and you tomorrow"; in 2000 John Paul II named him patron of statesmen and politicians.

Sources

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