SAINT FEAST DAY 22 JUNE: ST JOHN FISHER AND ST THOMAS MORE

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 22nd of June

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST JOHN FISHER AND ST THOMAS MORE, MARTYRS

Saint John Fisher was born in 1469; he studied at Cambridge University, was ordained, became Bishop of Rochester. He was a pastoral bishop, charitable to the poor, a man of prayer, and a persistent opponent of the errors of the Protestant Reformation.

Saint Thomas More was born in 1477, studied at Oxford University, married and had one son and three daughters. He became Chancellor of England. His writings include ‘Utopia’, and many prayers and letters which reveal his spirituality. Both were executed on the orders of King Henry VIII.

PRAYER:

Father,

you confirm the true faith

with the crown of martyrdom.

May the prayers of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More

give us the courage to proclaim our faith

by the witness of our lives.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

(📷 1. St Thomas More, 2. St John Fisher, 3. The Traitors' Gate, Tower of London, through which St Thomas More was brought by boat into the Tower of London to be executed. Ann Boleyn, wife of Henry VIII, was brought in through the same gate)