St. Thomas More

Who they were

Thomas More was the most admired lawyer in England, author of Utopia, friend of Erasmus, and a famously happy householder who educated his daughters to a standard that startled Europe. He rose to Lord Chancellor, the highest legal office under Henry VIII. When the king required an oath acknowledging his supremacy over the Church, More did the lawyerly thing to its limit: he resigned, went silent, and let silence be his defence, since English law could not construe silence as treason. It took perjured testimony to convict him. On the scaffold in 1535 he was, by every account, himself, telling the headsman that his beard had committed no treason and should be spared the axe. He summarised his whole case in one sentence: he died the King's good servant, but God's first. He was canonized in 1935 and named patron of statesmen and politicians in 2000.

Why people turn to St. Thomas More

Lawyers and judges formally. Really, anyone whose job is asking them to sign something their conscience will not: the auditor, the manager, the employee in the meeting where everyone else is nodding.

How to ask their intercession

Before the signature you are not sure you can give. Ask his prayers for his exact combination: full command of the rules, and the one line past which the rules lose.