St. John Fisher was born in Beverly, Yorkshire, in 1459. He was a man of learning, associated with the intellectuals and political leaders of his day. He was confessor to Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, and became closely associated in her endowments to Cambridge university. He was a friend to Erasmus, and brought him to England as professor of Divinity and Greek at Cambridge.
In 1504, he became Bishop of Rochester and Chancellor of Cambridge, and he also tutored Prince Henry who was to become Henry VIII, However, from 1527, like St Thomas More he actively opposed the King's divorce proceedings against his wife, Catherine of Aragon, and similarly he steadfastly resisted the encroachment of Henry on the Church.
Unlike the other Bishops, St. John refused to take the oath of succession which acknowledged the child of Henry and Anne Boleyn (the future Queen Elizabeth I) as the legitimate heir to the throne, and he was imprisoned in the tower in April 1534.
He was condemned to death by torture, but this penalty was changed to beheading because the 66-year-old Cardinal was ill and too weak to endure torture.
While in prison, he was made a Cardinal by Paul III and Henry retaliated by having him beheaded within a month.
A half hour before his execution, St John opened his New Testament and saw the following words from St. John's Gospel: "Eternal life is this: to know You, the only true God, and Him Whom You have sent, Jesus Christ. I have given You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave me to do. Do You now, Father, give me glory at Your side". Closing the book, he observed: "There is enough learning in that to last me the rest of myHe was taken out for the public execution, and walked resolutely to the scaffold. Raising his emaciated body erect, he asked in an audible voice for the onlookers to pray for him:
life."
“Until now I have not feared death. I am, however, made of flesh, and because of the flesh, St. Peter denied Our Lord three times. I ask you to assist me with your prayers so that at the very point and instant of the death stroke, I may in that very moment stand steadfast without forsaking any one point of the Catholic Faith.”On the scaffold, he was offered pardon repeatedly if he would renounce his position, but he refused.
After he was beheaded, his head was set on a lance and placed on London Bridge. Fifteen days after his martyrdom, his head still appeared alive and fresh and when the people started to declare that this was a miracle, it was thrown into the Thames.
"I condemn no other man’s conscience: their conscience may save them, and mine must save me. We should remember, in all the controversies in which we engage, to treat our opponents as if they were acting in good faith, even if they seem to us to be acting out of spite or self-interest." ~ Saint John Fisher
John Fisher and Thomas More were beatified in 1886 and canonized in 1935. Their feast is commemorated jointly.
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