St. John Fisher
Today we celebrate the feast day of St. John Fisher. St. John Fisher is highly associated with St. Thomas More, and a bunch of other Renaissance humanists. St. John’s life, did not have a lot of the external simplicity that was found in the lives of some saints. St. John was a person who had a large love of learning, this learning was associated with the majority of the intellectuals and political leaders of his day. St. John was highly interested in the contemporary culture and overtime he decided to become chancellor at Cambridge. After some time as chancellor, St. John had eventually been made a bishop, this occurred when he was 35. One of St. John’s interests was being able to raise the standard of preaching in England. St. John later found out that him himself was a successful preacher and writer. St. John’s sermons on the penitential psalms were reprinted a total of seven times before his death. During this time Lutheranism was starting to grow and spread, unfortunately St. John was drawn into controversy. However, St. John’s eight books against heresy gave him a leading position among the majority of European theologians.
During they year 1521, St. John was asked to study the situation that was occurring with King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, who was his brother’s widow. St. John had made King Henry angry by defending the validity of the king’s marriage with Catherine, and he later rejected Henry’s claim to be the supreme head of the Church of England.
Due to all that was happening King Henry wanted to get rid of St. John. King Henry first decided to accuse St. John of not reporting all the “revelations” of the nun of Kent, Elizabeth Barton. St. John was eventually summoned to take the oath to the new Act of Succession. St. John and Thomas More refused to do so because the Act had presumed the legality of King Henry’s divorce and the claim that King Henry made which was to be head of the English Church. They were both later sent to the Tower of London, where St. John had remained 14 months without trial. Finally both men ended up being sentenced to life imprisonment and loss of goods.
When the two were called to further interrogations, the both of them decided to remain silent. St. John was later tricked into saying that King Henry was not supreme leader of the church in England. King Henry, was further angered that the pope decided to make St. John a cardinal, and King Henry decided to put St. John on trial for high treason.
St. John was condemned and later executed, St. John’s body was left to lie all day on the scaffold and his head was later hung on London Bridge. St. Thomas More was executed two weeks after St. John. St. John Fisher's feast day is celebrated on June 22.
Prayer to St. John Fisher
St. John intercede that we may be able to stay strong in hard and intense situations. Help us to protect the truth and bring more people to Christ. St. John help us to stand up for the truth and help us to serve others with kindness and charity. St. John be with us in moments of trial and temptation and help us to always turn to Christ during these moments so that we may be comforted and find peace.
Amen
St. John pray for us
St. Joseph pray for us
May we continue to strengthen our journey to sainthood and keep others in our prayers.
Works cited:
Information (read from, not taken):
Franciscan media. “Saint John Fisher. ”Saint John Fisher | Franciscan Media. Accessed June 23, 2021.
Images:
Saint John Fisher. June 23, 2021. Saint John Fisher - Google Search.