Thomas More

==Veneration==
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix = [[Saint]]
|name            = Thomas More
|image           = File:MEDAILLON.OF.SAINT.THOMAS.MORE.jpg
|imagesize       = 
|feast_day       = 22 June (Catholic Church)<br /> 6 July (Church of England)<br /> 9 July (Catholic Extraordinary Form)
|venerated_in    = [[Catholic Church]]<br/>[[Anglican Communion]]
|caption         = Portrait of Saint Thomas More, executed on Tower Hill (London) in 1535, apparently based on the Holbein portrait.
|titles          = Reformation Martyr, Scholar
|beatified_date  = 29 December 1886
|beatified_place = [[Florence]], [[Kingdom of Italy]],
|beatified_by    = [[Pope Leo XIII]]
|canonized_date  = 19 May 1935
|canonized_place = [[Vatican City]],
|canonized_by    = [[Pope Pius XI]]
|attributes      = dressed in the robe of the [[Lord Chancellor|Chancellor]] and wearing the [[Livery collar|Collar of Esses]]; [[axe]]
|patronage       = Statesmen and politicians; [[lawyers]]; Ateneo de Manila Law School; [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington|Diocese of Arlington]]; [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee|Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee]]; [[Kerala Catholic Youth Movement]]; [[University of Malta]]; [[University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters]]
|major_shrine    = [[Church of St Peter ad Vincula]], London, England
|suppressed_date = 
|issues          = 
|prayer          = 
|prayer_attrib   = 
}}

=== {{anchor|Catholic Church}} Catholic Church ===
[[Pope Leo XIII]] [[beatification|beatified]] Thomas More, [[John Fisher]], and [[List of Catholic martyrs of the English Reformation#Beatified 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII|52 other English Martyrs]] on 29 December 1886. Pope Pius XI [[canonisation|canonised]] More and Fisher on 19 May 1935, and More's feast day was established as 9 July.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Brendan F. |title=St. Thomas More, lawyer |journal=Fordham Law Review |year=1935 |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=375–390 |url=https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1064&context=flr}}</ref> Since 1970 the [[General Roman Calendar]] has celebrated More with St John Fisher on 22 June (the date of Fisher's execution). On 31 October 2000 [[Pope John Paul II]] declared More "the heavenly [[patron saint|Patron]] of Statesmen and Politicians".<ref name=JP2PatronSaint>[[Ecclesiastical letter#Letters of the popes in modern times|Apostolic letter]] issued ''[[motu proprio]]'' proclaiming Saint Thomas More Patron of Statesmen and Politicians, 31 October 2000 [https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/motu_proprio/documents/hf_jp-ii_motu-proprio_20001031_thomas-more_en.html Vatican.va]</ref> More is the patron of the German Catholic youth organisation [[Katholische Junge Gemeinde]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kjg.de/?id=12|title=Thomas Morus|website=kjg.de|access-date=1 July 2016}}</ref>

It is reported that the canonization ceremony was greeted with a "minimal and hostile" treatment by the British press, and officially boycotted by the parliament and universities.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Miles |first1=Leland |title=Persecution and the Dialogue of Comfort: A Fresh Look at the Charges against Thomas More |journal=Journal of British Studies |date=1965 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=19–30 |doi=10.1086/385507 |jstor=175180 |s2cid=143128538 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/175180 |issn=0021-9371}}</ref>

=== Anglican Communion ===
In 1980, despite their staunch opposition to the [[English Reformation]], More and Fisher were added as martyrs of the reformation to the [[Church of England]]'s [[Calendar of saints (Church of England)|calendar]] of "Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church", to be [[Commemoration (Anglicanism)|commemorated]] every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".<ref name=CofEholyDays /><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Calendar|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/calendar|access-date=2021-03-27|website=The Church of England|language=en}}</ref> The annual remembrance of 6 July, is recognized by all Anglican Churches in communion with Canterbury, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa.<ref name=RefRep>{{cite book|title=Reformation Reputations: The Power of the Individual in English Reformation History|year=2020|publisher=Springer International Publishing|editor=David J. Crankshaw, George W. C. Gross}}</ref>

In an essay examining the events around the addition to the Anglican calendar, Scholar William Sheils links the reasoning for More's recognition to a "long-standing tradition hinted at in Rose Macaulay's ironic debating point of 1935 about More's status as an 'unschismed Anglican', a tradition also recalled in the annual memorial lecture held at St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury, where More's head is said to be buried."<ref name=RefRep/> Sheils also noted the influence of the 1960s popular play and film ''[[A Man for All Seasons (play)|A Man for All Seasons]]'' which gave More a "reputation as a defender of the right of conscience".<ref name=RefRep/> Thanks to the play's depiction,  this "brought his life to a broader and more popular audience" with the film "extending its impact worldwide following the Oscar triumphs".<ref name=RefRep/> Around this time the atheist Oxford historian and public intellectual, Hugh Trevor-Roper held More up as "the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of Humanists...the universal man of our cool northern Renaissance."<ref name=RefRep/> By 1978, the quincentenary of More's birth Trevor-Roper wrote an essay putting More in the Renaissance Platonist tradition, and claim his reputation was "quite independent of his Catholicism."<ref name=RefRep/> (Only, later on, did a more critical view arise in academia, led by Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton, which "challenged More's reputation for saintliness by focusing on his dealings with heretics, the ferocity of which, in fairness to him, More did not deny. In this research, More's role as a prosecutor, or persecutor, of dissidents has been at the center of the debate.")<ref name=RefRep/>