Saint Thomas More: Secular Franciscan and Patron Saint of Public Servants

On June 22, Catholics celebrate the memory of St. Thomas More (1478-1535), celebrated humanist, author, statesman, devoted father and husband, who died as a martyr on July 6, 1535. According to longstanding tradition, he was a Secular Franciscan.

Immersed in humanistic scholarship and study of law

Born in London in 1478, the son of the prosperous lawyer John More, Thomas received an excellent primary education: at the age of 12 he became a page to Archbishop Morton of Canterbury, Chancellor of England, who immersed him in humanistic scholarship. In 1492 Thomas began studies at Oxford, but he soon left to take up the study of law in London. By the late 1490s More, a young lecturer in law, had joined a circle of prominent humanist scholars: John Colet, Thomas Linacre, and Erasmus.

Deeply drawn to prayer and an ascetic life

More also was deeply drawn to prayer and an ascetic life. For two years he lived near the Carthusian monastery (Charterhouse), often taking part in the daily spiritual exercises of the monks and frequenting their library.

Thomas More's personal crucifix.

Home became center of learning, hospitality, prayer

Despite his attractions of the monastic life, More ultimately decided he could best serve God as a Christian layman. He entered Parliament in 1504 and soon became known for his eloquence and integrity. More married in 1505 and became a dedicated family man. Within six years the couple had four children. More gave his daughters the same humanist education as his son, and his home became a center of learning, hospitality, and prayer.

Sketch of the More family, Hans Holbein (c. 1527).

Advancing in public service; writing of his famous work "Utopia"

Meanwhile, More’s intelligence and work ethic paved the way for him to advance in public service. He was named to the Privy Council in 1514 and gradually was given positions of ever-greater responsibility, in the process becoming a close friend and advisor of King Henry VIII. In the meantime, he continued to engage in humanistic scholarship. He wrote his famous “Utopia” in 1516. It was during these years that More most probably became a Secular Franciscan; the Observant friars had a house attached to the royal palace in Greenwich where they were chaplains, and More became acquainted with a number of them.

From first edition of Utopia (1516).

Defender of Catholic doctrine of the sacraments

During the 1520s, as More became more prominent as a legal advocate and judge, he gained a reputation for solid integrity and scrupulous fairness. These years also witnessed the growing impact of ideas advanced by the Protestant Reformers; in this regard More remained a loyal adherent of the Catholic faith. He assisted Henry VIII in writing a defense of the traditional Catholic doctrine of the sacraments against Luther’s attacks (1521-23).

Statue of Thomas More outside Chelsea Old Church, London. The family worshiped here regularly, and More built a chapel for his family's graves.

A rise in politics

More was named Lord Chancellor in October 1529. He used this position to try to stamp out Protestant publications and preaching. Most famously, More entered into literary combat with the English reformer and Biblical scholar William Tyndale between 1529 to 1533. However, the matter of the King’s marriage increasingly occupied center stage: as Henry moved to separate the Church of England from Papal control, More’s conscience compelled him to resign his position in 1532. He tried for some time to evade taking a position on the king’s marriage to Anne Boleyn, but his prominence demanded he do so. More was arrested in 1534 for denying the royal supremacy and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was beheaded on July 6, 1535, dying as “the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”

Canonized as a martyr of conscience

More and his friend and fellow martyr, John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, were canonized in 1935. In 1980 the Anglican Church also recognized More and Fisher as martyrs of conscience. And in 2000 Pope St. John Paul II made Thomas More the patron of public servants and politicians because “he demonstrated in a singular way the value of a moral conscience. . .even if, in his actions against heretics, he reflected the limits of the culture of his time."

Main image: The celebrated portrait of Thomas More (detail) by Hans Holbein the Younger (1527), Frick Gallery, New York.