A Man For All Seasons: Today (22 June) Is The Feast Day of St. Thomas More

Today (22 June) is the feast day of St. Thomas More, martyr and patron of lawyers, civil servants, politicians, and statesmen (not to mention "difficult marriages").

As he went to his death, ordered beheaded by Henry VIII for refusing to swear the Oath of Supremacy declaring the King head of the Church in England, More humbly stated that he would die "the King's good servant, and God's first."*

From the Patron Saints Index:

Memorial: 22 June

Profile: Studied at London and Oxford. Page for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Lawyer. Twice married, father of one son and three daughters, and a devoted family man. Writer. Friend of King Henry VIII. Lord Chancellor of England, a position of power second only to the king. Opposed the king on the matter of royal divorce, and refused to swear the Oath of Supremacy which declared the king the head of the Church in England. Resigned the Chancellorship, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Martyred for his refusal to bend his religious beliefs to the king's political needs.

Born: 1478 at London, England

Died: beheaded in 1535; head kept in the Roper Vault, Saint Dunstan's church, Canterbury, England; body at Saint Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London, England

Canonized: 1935 by Pope Pius XI

Patronage: adopted children, diocese of Arlington Virginia, civil servants, court clerks, difficult marriages, large families, lawyers, diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee Florida, politicians, politicos, statesmen, step-parents, widowers

What does it avail to know that there is a God, which you not only believe by Faith, but also know by reason: what does it avail that you know Him if you think little of Him?
- Saint Thomas More

Links:
Apostolic Letter of Pope John Paul II, naming St. Thomas More the patron of politicians and statesmen

Center for Thomas More Studies
Thomas More Website
St. Thomas More on The Franciscan Archive
St. Thomas More on the Patron Saints Index
The St. Thomas More Web Site
Thomas More Law Center
Thomas More Society
The St. Thomas More Society
The Life of St. Thomas More by William Roper
"Thomas More For Our Season" by Judge Robert Bork
A Man For All Seasons (DVD available from Amazon.com)
A Man For All Seasons Study Site

Update (6/23/05)
Hat tip to Amy Welborn for the following link:
Center for Thomas More Studies

* Some accounts have it "... but God's first", and this is the common misconception. However, according to "Cheeky Lawyer" posting over at Amy Welborn's blog:
"The conjunction is actually different from what we so often hear. In the Center [for Thomas More Studies]'s materials you will see that a contemporary Paris newspaper reported that More actually said, “I die the King’s Good Servant and God’s first.” Perhaps it is quibbling, but call it part of the lawyer's vocation. But the difference does point to something important. More saw the advice he gave the king and his ultimate opposition to the King Henry’s actions to be true service the King—precisely because he was following God’s will and trying to show the King and the whole realm the truth of the great matter. In other words, he died both the King's good servant and God's good servant."
(emphasis added)