I just saw this quote and how apt it is for this week of prayer, study , and action on Religious Freedom
Blessed Thomas More is important today, but he is not as important now as he will be in one hundred years from today. -GK Chesterton(1929).
Oh Boy Chesteron was not just whistling Dixie on that.
It is the feast day of both Thomas More and John Fisher. See a great overview here.
This well done and engaging site that has the writing of St Thomas More is really worth a visit and a bookmark. Going to spend some time looking at it tonight.
Saint Thomas More, pray for us.
Saint John Fisher, pray for us.
2 comments:
The family version of Sir Thomas Moore is a bit different from the saintly one. My grandmother Froehlich, a direct descendant (and a Moore) always said not to be pig headed and 'cut your nose off to spite your face'. In our family, even the genealogy was obscured because his actions, now considered saintly, brought ruin on the entire family.
The only legacy brought down through our family was the fact that the Moores were so pig-headed they would rather destroy themselves and everyone around them to admit they were wrong or consider another option. I must admit to more than a bit of this family trait. It is terribly counterproductive, rearing its ugly head, generation after generation.
Instead of considering Moore an example of a great and Godly Christian, the family looks to the legacy of William Godbey, a Quaker minister and very good friend of the first GW. In fact, William Godbey is the one who castigated Washington and Jefferson about slavery. The Godbey family was famous for their ministers, but there was never ever a mention of Sir Thomas.
In this country, the Moore family, while not directly involved in all the "action", were very good friends with the participants of Independence. Madison was the executor of my 5th great grandfather's estate. William Moore was one of GW's neighbors and friends. His wife's family owned Woodlawn Plantation, next to Mount Vernon. What fascinates me, is, after twenty years of genealogical research, instead of celebrating Sir Thomas, everything possible has been done to shut him out of the family legacy.
It is interesting how things are portrayed in the world. I'm the only one in the family in generations to even discuss Moore's legacy. In our family, he was basically consigned to the back burner of history because of the destruction he brought upon his family.
Strange how we look at things, isn't it. I've always considered him a remarkable writer and thinker, but never thought he was all that admirable a defender of religious freedom. Then again, according to the family history, there was a strain of craziness that runs through the Moore line!
Just a different perspective. The Moore family was always much prouder of Jeremiah Moore (William's son - the worthy one) who wrote Patrick Henry's immortal speech "Give me liberty or give me death".
SJR
The Pink Flamingo
That is really interesting. I had no idea you were related!!
I have often wondered as to these English Saints from this time period that included a good many Lay people how many people in the USA could trace their line back to them.
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