“Comfort in tribulation can be secured only on the sure ground of faith holding as true the words of Scripture and the teaching of the Catholic Church” (St. Thomas More).

When I was in law school, a professor gave me a miraculous medal inscribed with the image and name of the great lawyer and statesman St. Thomas More. I wore it on a silver chain around my neck during exams, and when I started to feel anxious (which was a lot), I would rub the medal between my fingers as a tangible reminder of this holy man’s powerful intercession. Like many aspiring professionals, I’ve long felt a special affinity for him.

More, whose feast day we celebrate on June 22, is arguably one of the most well-known, well-respected saints in Church history. Named the official patron of politicians and statesmen by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000, he is the namesake of societies of lawyers and politicians nationwide (including a growing society in my hometown of Raleigh, N.C.). Various literary, film, and TV adaptations chronicle his life, work, and high-profile conflict with King Henry VIII, his imprisonment in the Tower of London, and his subsequent martyrdom. People are simply fascinated with his story.

Can we, as modern Catholic women in business, rely on him as an intercessor? Can we identify with his particular model of faithfulness when our lives and vocations, and the specific challenges we confront, look so different than his?

From the King’s Inner Circle to the Tower of London

Born in 1478, Thomas More was classically educated and studied law after briefly discerning a call to the monastic life. He married and had four children, and he remarried after his first wife died in childbirth with their fourth child.

More was elected to serve in Parliament in 1504 and was eventually named Lord Chancellor, becoming a part of King Henry VIII’s innermost circle of trusted advisers. But when the king demanded an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Pope Clement denied it on the grounds the marriage was valid and indissoluble. The king dug in his heels in defiance of Church teachings on papal authority. More ultimately resigned from his post as Lord Chancellor, as he could not support the king in his continued push to seek an annulment against the Church’s authority.

When the king married Anne Boleyn, he demanded that everyone subject to the British Crown take an oath affirming the validity of his marriage; anyone who failed to do so would be subject to indictment for treason against the Crown. Shortly thereafter, a royal commission attempted to force More into taking the oath. Upon his refusal to affirm, More was imprisoned in the Tower of London for his defiance to King Henry and his so-called Act of Supremacy.

More’s time in the Tower of London was spiritually and intellectually fruitful, and many of his writings come from that time of solitude. In particular, his letters to his daughter Margaret have since been published. In these letters, More did not bemoan his imprisonment but, instead, wrote about the glory of God and His unending generosity, even amid great suffering. In one letter, he wrote to Margaret:

God’s grace has given the king a gracious frame of mind toward me, so that as yet he has taken from me nothing but my liberty. In doing this His Majesty has done me such great good with respect to spiritual profit that I trust that among all the great benefits he has heaped so abundantly upon me I count my imprisonment the very greatest. I cannot, therefore, mistrust the grace of God.

More’s friends and family spent the next 15 months trying to convince him to take the king’s oath and save his own life, but More refused. Shortly after came an Act of Parliament declaring King Henry VIII “the only supreme head of the Church in England” and stating that all who opposed this declaration would be executed. Refusing to deny the pope’s authority as head of the Church, More was indicted and tried for treason. He was sentenced to death and executed at age 57.

Champion of a Well-Formed Conscience

St. Thomas More’s life, work, and holy death might seem a bit inaccessible to us as modern women in business, particularly if we do not share his profession as a lawyer and politician. Yet his life is still worth examining and his legacy worth championing. In fact, when we peel back the layers, it becomes clear that in many ways, his path to sainthood is actually relevant to our work in the modern Church, as G.K. Chesterton wrote nearly a century ago.

More is regarded as a paragon of the properly-formed conscience. By refusing to swear the king’s oath and even in light of threats not only to his work but to his life, More’s life and martyrdom show us that holiness is our first calling. All we do in life and in business should be ordered toward and subject to it.

As Catholic women in business, we, too, cannot and should not do anything in our career that is incongruous with our faith. Although we are unlikely to withstand the type of scrutiny that St. Thomas More did, we will certainly face challenges that force us to choose between what seem to be competing priorities: self-preservation, worldly glory, and public approval on the one hand and steadfastness in our faith on the other. May we follow St. Thomas More’s example in choosing holiness every time.

A Defender of the Faith

St. Thomas More is upheld as a defender of the faith, a call we all share, even (or perhaps especially) when our work is purely secular. His martyrdom is certainly an extreme example, and most of us won’t confront the same fate. But will some of us be mocked, ridiculed, and castigated for publicly adhering to our beliefs or refusing to renounce them? Might we be pushed out of a company or ostracized from an entire industry for a stance we take? It is not unlikely.

As women of faith, we can look to St. Thomas More’s intercession for the courage to keep our gaze fixed on all that is good, true, and beautiful and to challenge our fear as a persuasive yet, ultimately, foolish and errant teacher. As More wrote in a letter to his daughter from the Tower: “Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.”

Alexandra Macey Davis is a lawyer-turned-freelance writer and author. Most recently, she has written for Verily Magazine, Coffee + Crumbs, Public Discourse, The Federalist, and FemCatholic, and she writes a monthly Substack letter called Chrism + Coffee, a call to find peace and rest in both the sacramental and the ordinary. She is the founder of Davis Legal Media, a ghostwriting and content strategy company serving the legal industry. Her first book, Pivot: The Nontraditional JD Careers Handbook, will be published in late 2023. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and two boys.