Learning as the Preparation for a Holy Death

St. Thomas More is, I think, singular among the saints in that he is equally well known for his learning and education as he is for his holy martyrdom. There are many martyrs and many learned saints, but few who combine both. Though these two points seem far apart, More understood his learning to be a sort of preparation for a good and holy death.

For More, a proper education should lead to modesty, humility, piety, and charity towards all. Such a life, More argues, cultivates purity and innocence which are necessary for a good death. I recently came across a letter he wrote to his daughter's tutor, Gunnell, in which he enjoins the tutor to care for the virtue of his children.

For all of us engaged in the difficult task of leading souls to truth, we should heed his words:

"Therefore, my dear Gunnell, since we must walk by this road, I have often begged not you only, who, out of your affection for my children, would do it of your own accord, nor my wife, who is sufficiently urged by her maternal love for them, which has been proved to me in so many ways, but all my friends, to warn my children to avoid the precipices of pride and haughtiness, and to walk in the pleasant meadows of modesty; not to be dazzled at the sight of gold; not to lament that they do not possess what they erroneously admire in others; not to think more of themselves for gaudy trappings, nor less for the want of them; neither to deform the beauty that nature has given them by neglect, nor to try to heighten it by artifice; to put virtue in the first place, learning in the second; and in their studies to esteem most whatever may teach them piety towards God, charity to all, and modesty and Christian humility in themselves. By such means they will receive from God the reward of an innocent life, and in the assured expectation of it, will view death without horror, and meanwhile possessing solid joy, will neither be puffed up by the empty praise of men, nor dejected by evil tongues. These I consider the genuine fruits of learning, and though I admit that all literary men do not possess them, I would maintain that those who give themselves to study with such views, will easily attain their end and become perfect."