Pastor's Points: St. John Fisher

Pastor's Points: St. John Fisher

When our new South Campus opens in the fall, the daily Mass chapel will be named in honor of St. John Fisher. I petitioned Bishop Luis to name the chapel in John Fisher’s honor due to his close relation to St. Thomas More, and given that they share the same feast day.  You may also have heard the priests including John Fisher in the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass along with Thomas More.

St. John Fisher is not a very well-known saint but he has great significance for us as the parish of St. Thomas More.  So that you may learn more about John Fisher, I asked Jim Hynes, Director of Adult Formation and Catechumenate, to write an article about Fisher’s life, his ministry as a bishop, and what lead to his martyrdom.

Our Faith Development Programs and St. Thomas More Catholic School will be developing ways to education our children and youth about St. John Fisher as well.
 
 

Biography of St. John Fisher by Jim Hynes    

Saint John Fisher (c. 19 October 1469 – 22 June 1535), was an English Catholic bishop, cardinal, and theologian. Fisher was also an academic, and eventually served as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

He was executed by order of Henry VIII during the English Reformation for refusing to accept the King as Supreme Head of the Church of England and for upholding the Catholic Church's doctrine of papal primacy. He was named a cardinal shortly before his death. The Catholic Church honors him as a martyr and saint. He shares his feast day with St Thomas More on 22 June in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints and on 6 July in that of the Church of England.

Early life
John Fisher was born in Beverley, Yorkshire, in 1469, the eldest of four children.  He studied at the University of Cambridge from 1484, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1487 and in 1491 was ordained to the priesthood. He soon became proctor of Cambridge University and chaplain and confessor to Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII. Fisher attracted leading scholars from Europe to Cambridge, and promoted the study of Classical Latin and Greek authors, and also Hebrew. He placed great weight upon pastoral commitment, above all popular preaching. As a scholar and a priest, he was humble and conscientious. Erasmus said of John Fisher: "He is the one man at this time who is incomparable for uprightness of life, for learning and for greatness of soul."

Bishop
In 1504, Fisher was appointed the Bishop of Rochester at the personal insistence of King Henry VII. He stayed there for the remaining 31 years of his life, and at the same time received a lifetime appointment as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He also acted as tutor to Prince Henry, later King Henry VIII. Fisher had denounced various abuses in the church, urging the need for disciplinary reforms, but he was very loyal to the Church, and preached against Martin Luther.

Defense of Catherine of Aragon
When King Henry tried to divorce Queen Catherine of Aragon, Fisher became the Queen's chief supporter.  When he appeared on the Queen's behalf in court, he declared that, like St John the Baptist, he was ready to die on behalf of the indissolubility of marriage. Henry VIII became enraged by this, and never forgave him for what he had done.

Henry's attack on the Church
In 1529, Parliament began encroaching on the Catholic Church's prerogatives. Fisher warned Parliament against such acts. Henry summoned Fisher before him, demanding an explanation. A year later, in 1530, Fisher and several other Bishops appealed to the Holy See. King Henry forbade such appeals, and the three bishops were arrested, and Henry attempted to force them to acknowledge him as Supreme Head of the Church in England.

Intrigues with the Holy Roman Emperor
Fisher also engaged in secret activities to overthrow Henry. In 1533 he encouraged Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to invade England and depose Henry in combination with a domestic uprising.

"The King's Great Matter"
In May 1532, Sir Thomas More resigned the chancellorship and, in June, Fisher preached publicly against the divorce. In January 1533, Henry secretly married Anne Boleyn. In March 1533 Fisher was arrested. Parliament passed the First Succession Act, by which people were compelled to take an oath of succession, acknowledging the issue of Henry and Anne as legitimate heirs to the throne, under pain of treason. John Fisher refused the oath and was imprisoned in the Tower of London on 26 April 1534. Several efforts were made to induce him to submit, but without effect.

Cardinalate and execution
In May 1535, the newly elected Pope Paul III created Fisher a Cardinal, in the hope of inducing Henry to ease Fisher's treatment. The effect was the reverse: Henry forbade the cardinal's hat to be brought into England, declaring that he would send the head to Rome instead. On 17 June, he was put on trial and charged with treason, in that he denied that the King was the Supreme Head of the Church of England. John Fisher was found guilty and condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

However, there was a public outcry among ordinary people who saw a sinister parallel between the conviction of John Fisher and of his namesake, Saint John the Baptist, who was executed by King Herod Antipas for challenging the validity of Herod's marriage to his brother's wife Herodias. For fear of John Fisher's living through his patronal feast day, that of the Nativity of St John the Baptist on 24 June, and of attracting too much public sympathy, King Henry commuted the sentence to that of beheading, to be accomplished before 23 June. He was executed on Tower Hill on 22 June 1535. The execution had the opposite effect from that which King Henry VIII intended as John Fisher, like John the Baptist, was also beheaded, and his death also happened on the feast day of Saint Alban, the first martyr of Britain.

Fisher met death with a calm dignified courage, which profoundly impressed those present. His body was treated with particular indignity, on Henry's orders. His body was laid beside that of Sir Thomas More, whose execution was on July 6, in the chapel of St Peter ad Vincula within the Tower of London.

Canonization
John Fisher was beatified on 29 December 1886 by Pope Leo XIII, as one of 54 English martyrs. He was later canonized, on 19 May 1935, by Pope Pius XI along with Thomas More, after the presentation of a petition by English Catholics. His feast day, for celebration jointly with St Thomas More, is on 22 June (the date of Fisher's execution). In 1980, despite being an opponent of the English Reformation, Fisher was added to the Church of England's calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, jointly with Thomas More, to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, Scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535".

Patronage
Due to his status as the Bishop of Rochester, St. John Fisher has been adopted as a patron of several institutions in other cities named Rochester including St. John Fisher College and Saint John of Rochester Catholic Church in the Rochester, New York area, and St. John Fisher Seminary Residence in the Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is also patron of the Fisher Athletic semi-professional soccer team in southeast London.