At St Mary's, all our school houses (which the children can work to collect house points for) are linked to Catholic saints. They are role models who provide inspiration and support to all the pupils in whichever house the children belong to.

Thomas More was a friend of John Fisher and they were both friends of Henry VIII.

More was not a priest, but a politician and became Henry's right hand man, very powerful and important.

However, like his friend Fisher, he could not agree that Henry should be head of the Church in England and be allowed to break the rules of the Church.

He resigned from his job, hoping that he could just live quietly, but Henry could not allow such a well known man to disagree with him so he was locked up in the Tower of London.

After being convicted of treason, he was executed.

Before he died, he said that he died the King's good servant, but God's first.

His Feast Day is also 22"* June and he is patron saint of politicians.

Saint Edmund Campion was born in London in 1540 and so lived in Tudor times where it was not always safe to be a Catholic.

He decided to train to become a priest in France.

He wanted to come back to Britain and serve the Catholic people, even though it was forbidden to be a Catholic and he knew he was risking death by coming.

When he came back to Britain, he travelled around Berkshire and Oxfordshire saying Mass and preaching, even though he was a hunted man.

Eventually he was captured by a spy and taken to London, where he was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

He was tried for treason and found guilty. On 1* December he was executed at the age of 41.

His feast day is 1st December.

Saint Oliver Plunkett was born in Ireland in 1629.

He also trained to be a priest and ended up becoming the Bishop of all Ireland. However, at that time, after the English Civil War, the Irish were not allowed to be Catholic and he had to leave the country.

When he came back, he set up a school for children and for trainee priests.

Later he had to go into hiding again and was arrested for treason.

He was tried in London and then executed in 1681, the last Catholic martyr to die in England.

When he was made a saint in 1973, he was the first new Irish saint for nearly 700 years.

He is often connected with peace and reconciliation.

His Feast Day is on 11th July.

Saint John Fisher was born in Yorkshire in 1469.

He became a bishop as well as being in charge of Cambridge University.

While there, he tutored Prince Henry, who later became King Henry VIll.

However, when Henry wanted to divorce his wife to marry Anne Boleyn, Fisher took Queen Katherine's side as that is what the Church believed was the right thing to do.

Henry decided to split with the Church in Rome and insisted that all the people in the country, especially important people split with Rome too.

Bishop John Fisher refused and so he was locked up in the Tower of London.

He was tried for treason and executed in 1535.

His Feast Day is 22"d June, a date he shares with Thomas More.