ANGLICANS! Why is Thomas More considered an Anglican Saint?

[AdriannaJean]

Hi All,

I was recently shocked to find out that Thomas More and John Fisher are considered Anglican Saints. This seems rather odd because both of them were martyred for upholding the Catholic faith and opposing the Church of England. Why on Earth would they be considered saints from the Anglican perspective? By naming them saints, wouldn’t that undermine the entire foundation that the Church of England is built on, because it is exactly that foundation that they stood against?

I do not mean this as an attack in any way, it just seems wholly contradictory and requires some explanation.

Thanks

 

[PiousTemplar]

Bump. I want an explanation aswell, I saw the other day that he was recognised by the Anglican faith.

 

[odhiambo]

Hi All,

I was recently shocked to find out that Thomas More and John Fisher are considered Anglican Saints. This seems rather odd because both of them were martyred for upholding the Catholic faith and opposing the Church of England. Why on Earth would they be considered saints from the Anglican perspective? By naming them saints, wouldn’t that undermine the entire foundation that the Church of England is built on, because it is exactly that foundation that they stood against?

I do not mean this as an attack in any way, it just seems wholly contradictory and requires some explanation.

Thanks

I agree with you completely. I too am baffled.
Saint Thomas More was an opponent of the Protestant Reformation and of Martin Luther and William Tyndale. He has been venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church since 1935, and since 1980 his name has been included in the Anglican calendar of saints. I too cannot see the reason for it because he was martyred for his Catholic beliefs.
Only those who added his name to the Anglican Calender of Saints can enlighten us

 

[GKC]

I might can help, a little.

There is no single method of canonization, nor is there a single calender of saints across all of Anglicanism (as with many things, one needs to specify which Anglicans one is referring to; the Calendar varies with each independent province). The only individual I’m aware of that was treated in anything like the same fashion as the IRCC follows was Charles II, King and Martyr, though even that is not widely followed, outside the Society of Charles II.

Addition to an Anglican Calendar says nothing about the assumed sanctity or status of the individuals, and the term “Saint” is not officially used. Individuals added to the Calendar were most often names who played a prominent role in Church history and whose devotion is well attested. For the Church of England, which added Thomas More, those criteria were met. His feast day (as also John Fisher’s) is 6 July, and I will see it memorialized in my American parish Calendar. Though More was caught in a political struggle with Henry VIII, he was recognized as a man of learning, devotion and principle.

GKC

 

[IowaJay]

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams speaks of it as “martyrial ecumenism” - here is his speech given upon accepting the Campion award from the Jesuits - Campion was a Catholic executed under the reign of Henry VIII:

americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12115

 

[Zooey]

The Anglican calendar of saints is an interestingly inclusive one.
It also includes both John and Charles Wesley, who must have been extremely startled at their inclusion, as in life, they were both forbidden from exercising their priestly offices. John Wesley once preached standing on his father’s grave, as it was the only holy ground in his hometown that he was not (& could not be) forbidden to so much as step on.