The Daily Pilgrimage

Good Morning, Pilgrim

Receive this day from God.

Ss. John Fisher and Thomas More lost office, liberty, and life rather than consent to a false claim against the Church. Their conscience was not private stubbornness; it was judgment formed by Catholic truth and made firm enough to obey Christ when earthly power commanded betrayal.

Ask for grace to accept the place Providence gives today without inward theatre or complaint.

Formation in True Devotion - Day 223: Review and Deepening: Hiddenness and Humility

“He heard her prayers when she begged to be hidden, to be humbled and to be treated as in all respects poor and of no account.”
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, no. 3

Ora — Begin with Prayer

Offer the day before spending it

Prayer gives the day its right beginning and its right end. Before work, conversation, news, or distraction claims the mind, adore the Blessed Trinity and offer every prayer, work, joy, suffering, and temptation to Jesus through Mary. Ask your Guardian Angel for help, and place the souls and needs entrusted to you beneath God's will.

Begin simply. Make the Morning Offering through the hands of Our Lady. Pray the Three Hail Marys for purity and final perseverance, ask your Guardian Angel to govern the senses and imagination, and name the soul or intention for which today's prayers and sacrifices will be offered. Do not rush these acts merely because they are familiar; let them place the whole day beneath God before the world begins to claim it.

O Lord, through Thy martyrs St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More, form my conscience and keep me faithful when obedience to men would become betrayal of Thee.

Quote of the Day

“Yet I earnestly pray Almighty God that He may so strengthen me in this orthodox judgment which I hold, that I may persevere in it unto death.”
St. Thomas More, Pope Pius XI, Saevis agitata, May 19, 1935, Acta Apostolicae Sedis 28 (1936), printed p. 197; editorial translation from the Latin.

Today's Full Breviary Sermon or Proper Lesson

The orthodox judgment held unto death.

Papal Witness - Letters Decretal - Ss. John Fisher, Bishop and Martyr, and Thomas More, Martyr

The verified Breviary witness for this observance is identified below. A complete English transcription has not yet been admitted, so no excerpt or summary is presented as though it were the full appointed text.

Pope Pius XI and St. Thomas More, Saevis agitata

“Yet I earnestly pray Almighty God that He may so strengthen me in this orthodox judgment which I hold, that I may persevere in it unto death.”

• Pope Pius XI presents the English schism as a violent rupture of the unity of Catholic doctrine and ecclesiastical government, and honors the martyrs who shed their blood for the Catholic faith and the primacy of the Roman Church.
• St. John Fisher, a bishop and cardinal, and St. Thomas More, a layman and former chancellor, guarded the same inherited Roman faith when royal power demanded assent to a false ecclesiastical supremacy.
• When pardon was offered if he would abandon what his judges called obstinacy, More prayed instead that God would strengthen him in his orthodox judgment until death. His conscience was neither private preference nor defiance for its own sake, but Catholic truth obeyed before God.

Ask these martyrs for a conscience formed by Catholic doctrine and strengthened by grace. Neither office, safety, public pressure, nor the command of a ruler can make betrayal into obedience.

Walk with the Church

The Church has already begun praying. Enter her prayer.

Today the Roman year keeps Ss. John Fisher, Bishop and Martyr, and Thomas More, Martyr. Receive the observance as the Church gives it: first understand what is commemorated, then let its doctrine and worship shape the day.

Roman Martyrology

July 9

At Rome, in the place called the Drop-ever-falling, the birthday of St. Zeno, and ten thousand two hundred and three other martyrs. — At Gortyna, in Crete, in the persecution of Decius, under the governor Lucius, St. Cyril, a bishop, who was thrown into the flames without being injured, though his bonds were burnt. The judge, struck with awe at so great a miracle, set him at liberty, but as the saint began again immediately to preach the faith of Christ with zeal, he was beheaded. — In the town of Thora, on lake Velino, in Italy, the martyrdom of the Saints Anatolia and Audax, under the emperor Decius. Anatolia, a virgin consecrated to Christ, cured, through the whole province of Picenum, Now Ancona. many persons laboring under various infirmities, and made them believe in Christ. By order of the judge Fustinian, she was condemned to various kinds of punishments. She was cured of the sting of a serpent to which she had been exposed; a miracle which converted Audax to the faith. Finally she was transpierced with a sword, whilst her hands were extended in prayer. Audax was committed to prison, and being without delay sentenced to capital punishment, obtained the crown of a martyr. — At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Patermuthius, Copres, and Alexander, who were put to death under Julian the Apostate. — At Briel, in Holland, the martyrdom of the nineteen martyrs of Gorcum. For vindicating the authority of the Roman Church, and the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, they endured various ignominies and torments from the Calvinist heretics, and ended their suffering by being put to death. In the year 1867, Pius IX. placed them among the holy martyrs. — At Martula, St. Brixius, bishop. Under the judge Marcian, after having suffered much for the confession of our Lord, and converted to Christ a great multitude of people, he rested in peace. — At Citta-di-Castello, St. Veronica Giuliani, a Capuchin nun, abbess of the monastery of that town. Born at Mercatelli, in the diocese of Urania, she became illustrious by her great love for suffering and other virtues, and by her heavenly gifts. She was inscribed among holy virgins by pope Gregory XVI.

Learn from Today's Saint or Feast

Ss. John Fisher and Thomas More

Martyrs against false supremacy.

St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More suffered death rather than accept a false claim against the divine constitution of the Church.

Their witness joins doctrine to conscience: fidelity to Christ required public refusal, loss of honors, imprisonment, and martyrdom.

Ask these martyrs for a conscience that cannot be purchased by safety, office, reputation, or pressure to conform. A Catholic conscience is not private stubbornness; it is truth obeyed before God.

Breviary Witness for the Day

Martyrs of conscience before a false supremacy.

Matins - Ss. John Fisher and Thomas More

• The traditional remembrance of these English martyrs sets conscience beneath Catholic truth, not beneath the pressure of king, parliament, or public advantage.
• Their witness is sober and exact: lawful authority becomes tyranny when it demands betrayal of the Church and her divine constitution.

Do not call prudence what is really surrender. When the faith is at stake, the Catholic conscience must be formed enough to stand alone before earthly courts.