St. John Fisher
Feastday: June 22
Bishop of Rochester (England), Martyr

Born: 1469AD
Began his studies: 1484AD
Received his Master of Arts degree, ordained a priest on Dec. 17:  1491AD
Appointed confessor to Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, grandmother of Henry VIII:  1497AD
Appointed Chancellor of Cambridge University and Bishop of Rochester; Began tutoring Prince Henry (VIII):  1504AD
Lady Margaret and Henry VII (her son) die, Henry VIII takes throne: 1509AD
Bishop John asked to study the question of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catharine of Aragon; he incurred Henry’s anger with his conclusion that the marriage was sacramentally valid:  1527AD
Bishop John warned parliament of the King’s encroaching power over the Church in England in defying papal authority:  1529AD
Henry declares himself Supreme Head of the Church in England:  1531AD
Bishop John preached publicly against Henry’s divorce proceedings against Queen Catherine:  1532AD
Henry secretly marries Anne Boleyn in March; Bishop John arrested then later freed; Anne Boleyn’s coronation in June:  1533AD
Parliament passed the First Succession Act (requiring an oath of every person in loyalty to the King as head of the Church); Bishop John was the only one of 30 bishops in England to refuse to sign it; Bishop John imprisoned in the Tower of London,
April 26:  1534AD
A newly elected Pope, hoping to put pressure on Henry to free John from the Tower, names Bishop John a cardinal of the Church.  Cardinal John was beheaded at Tower Hill June 22:  1535AD
Thomas More, a layman and the King’s former Chancellor, was beheaded two weeks later on July 6.
Pope Pius XI canonized them both:  1935AD
 
St. John Fisher, our patron, pray for us!