Saints of the Week

Saint Thomas More

Feast Day: 22nd June

Virtue: Courage

Thomas Moore went to school in London. He served as a page for the Archbishop of Canterbury. Later, he studied law.

Thomas married. After the death of his wife, he remarried for the sake of his four children. The family lived happily and shared their money with the poor.

King Henry VIII made him Chancellor of England, a position second only to that of the king himself. Thomas saw that the poor were protected against injustice.

Once, while Thomas was at Mass, which he attended every morning, King Henry sent for him. He did not leave until the mass was finished, but sent a message: “As soon as my audience with the King of Heaven is ended, I will at once obey the desire of my earthly king.”

King Henry wanted a law passed making himself head of the Church of England, because the Pope would not grant him a divorce from the Queen. Thomas resigned and was arrested. He suffered much in prison for his Faith. He prayed for the king before he was beheaded in 1535.

Saint Thomas

Feast Day: July 3rd

Virtue: Faith

Thomas was a man of great courage and self-sacrifice. When Jesus told his disciples that

 he would return to Judea to visit his friend Lazarus, the Apostles knew that people would try to stone him. But Thomas said to his companions: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

After the Resurrection, the Apostles said to Thomas, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

After eight days, Thomas was with the Apostles. Jesus appeared and stood before Thomas and said, “Bring here your finger and see my hands, and bring here your hands and put it into my side, and be not unbelieving, but believing.

Thomas answered, “My Lord and My God.”

After the Ascension, Thomas preached in Parthia. He is also called the Apostle of the Indies, where he was martyred.