Daily Archives: April 9, 2010

St. John … Fisher…. (A Description)

From “Life of Blessed John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, and Martyr Under Henry VIII” by Rev. T. E. Bridgett, 1922:

In stature of body he was tall and comely, exceeding the common and middle sort of men, for he was to the quantity of six feet in height, and being therewith very slender and lean, was nevertheless upright and well-formed, straight-backed, big-jointed, and strongly sinewed. His hair by nature black…. His eyes long and round, neither full black nor full grey, but of a mixed colour between both. His forehead smooth and large; his nose of a good and even proportion; somewhat wide-mouthed and big-jawed, as one ordained to upper speech much, wherein was, notwithstanding, a certain comeliness; his skin somewhat tawny, mixed with many blue veins. His face, hands, and all his body so bare of flesh, as is almost incredible, which came the rather (as may be thought) by the great abstinence and penance he used upon himself many years together, even from his youth. In his countenance he bore such a reverend gravity, and therewith in his doings exercised such discreet severity, that not only of his equals, but even of his superiors, he was both honoured and feared.
In speech he was very mild, temperate, and modest, saving in matters of God and his charge, [and in the affairs] which then began to trouble the world, and therein he would be earnest above his accustomed order. But vainly or without cause he would never speak; neither was his ordinary talk of common worldly matters, but rather of the Divinity and high power of God, of the joys of heaven and the pains of hell, of the glorious death of martyrs and strait life of confessors, which such-like virtuous and profitable talk, which he always uttered with such a heavenly grace that his words were always a great edifying in his hearers.

[Bolding is mine.]