IN TODAY’S LIVES OF THE SAINTS AND MARTYRS, TWO MARTYRS OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION

Winchester, VA – Martyrs of the English Reformation, Saints John Fisher and Thomas More died protecting the integrity of the sacrament of marriage when they refused to accept King Henry VIII’s desire to divorce Catherine of Aragon. Saint John Fisher was the respected Bishop of Rochester. He sounded the warning bells to the Parliament about Henry’s disregard for the authority of the Pope and the control he was assuming over the Church in England. He was arrested several times and finally beheaded on this day in 1535. Saint Thomas More was a lawyer, husband and father. He held the office of Lord Chancellor until he resigned it over a refusal to comply with Henry’s establishment of himself as the head of the Church in England. Unable to be persuaded to change his opinion, he was beheaded two weeks after Saint John Fisher.