The Secular Franciscan

Category Archives: Saint Francis, & Other Saints

ST. THOMAS MORE, OFS

Saint Thomas More
(February 7, 1478 – July 6, 1535)
Saint Thomas More’s Story

Pope John Paul II named him patron of political leaders. The supreme diplomat and counselor, he did not compromise his own moral values in order to please the king, knowing that true allegiance to authority is not blind acceptance of everything that authority wants. Pray to St. Thomas More that President Biden and the Democrat Party will influence the end of abortion: the killing of babies in the womb.
Lord, pray for our country and our future political leaders to end the killing of children in the womb.
His belief that no lay ruler has jurisdiction over the Church of Christ cost Thomas More his life.
Beheaded on Tower Hill, London, on July 6, 1535, More steadfastly refused to approve King Henry VIII’s divorce and remarriage and establishment of the Church of England.

Described as “a man for all seasons,” More was a literary scholar, eminent lawyer, gentleman, father of four children, [a Secular Franciscan] and chancellor of England. Four hundred years later in 1935, Thomas More was canonized a saint of God. Few saints are more relevant to our time. In the year 2000, in fact, Pope John Paul II named him patron of “political leaders.” An intensely spiritual man, he would not support the king’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Nor would he acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church in England, breaking with Rome, and denying the pope as head.

Editor’s Note as stated: St. Thomas More, OFS was a “Franciscan Secular”.

More was committed to the Tower of London to await trial for treason: not swearing to the Act of Succession and the Oath of Supremacy. Upon conviction, More declared he had all the councils of Christendom and not just the council of one realm to support him in the decision of his conscience.

Reflection
Four hundred years later in 1935, Thomas More was canonized a saint of God. Few saints are more relevant to our time. In the year 2000, in fact, Pope John Paul II named him patron of political leaders. The supreme diplomat and counselor, he did not compromise his own moral values in order to please the king, knowing that true allegiance to authority is not blind acceptance of everything that authority wants.

King Henry himself realized this and tried desperately to win his chancellor to his side because he knew More was a man whose approval counted, a man whose personal integrity no one questioned. But when Thomas More resigned as chancellor, unable to approve the two matters that meant most to Henry, the king had to get rid of him.

Francis Rebukes a Brother

by Thomas of Celano, Second Life of St. Francis

Francis Rebukes a brother who was sad and admonishes him and tells him how to behave.

Francis once saw a certain companion of his with a peevish and sad face. Francis, not taking this lightly, said to him, “It is not becoming for a servant of God to show himself sad or upset before man, but he should always show himself honorable. Examine your offenses in your room and weep and groan before your God. But, when you return to your brothers, put off your sorrow and conform yourself to the rest” and he said. “They who are jealous of the salvation of men envy me greatly. They are always trying to disturb in my companions what they cannot disturb in me.” So much did Francis love a man who was full of spiritual joy that he had these words written down as an admonition to all at a certain general chapter. “Let the brothers beware lest they show themselves outwardly gloomy and sad hypocrites; but, let them show themselves joyful in the Lord, cheerful and suitably gracious.”

True Joy of The Spirit

St. Francis maintained that the safest remedy against the thousand snares and wiles of the enemy is spiritual joy. For he would say, “The devil rejoices most when he can snatch away spiritual joy from a servant of God. He carries dust so he can throw it into even the tiniest chinks of conscience and soil the candor of mind and purity of life. But, when spiritual joy fills the heart,” he said, “the serpent throws off his deadly poison in vain. The devils can not harm the servant of Christ when they see he is filled with holy joy. When, however, the soul is wretched, desolate, and filled with sorrow, it is easily overwhelmed by its sorrow or it may turn to vain enjoyments.”

The saint, therefore, made it a point to keep himself in joy of heart and to preserve the unction of the spirit and the oil of gladness. He avoided with the greatest care the miserable illness of dejection, so that if he felt it creeping over his mind even a little, he would quickly return to prayer.

Francis would say, “If the servant of God, as may happen, is disturbed in any way, he should rise immediately to pray and he should remain in the presence of the heavenly Father until he restores unto him the joy of salvation. For if he remains stupefied in sadness, the Babylonian stuff will increase, so that, unless it be at length driven out by tears, it will generate an abiding rust in the heart.”

From Thomas of Celano, Second Life, Omnibus.