As the name of the College signifies, its patron is St. Thomas More of Chelsea, a lawyer who rose to the position of Chancellor and quietly became a saint because of a loyalty to God and to the Roman Catholic Church.

A martyr for the Faith, he was also a man of learning and laughter. He gracefully stood for truth and gave his life for it.

In a letter St. Thomas More wrote to his children’s tutor, he employs characteristic clarity to set down principles for the education of men and women which might be reduced to the admonition: First Virtue, Then Learning:

“I have often begged not you only, who out of affection for all my family, would do it of your own accord, nor only my wife, who is sufficiently urged by her truly maternal love for them, but absolutely all my friends, continually to warn my children to put virtue in the first place among goods, learning in the second; and in their studies 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 dread, 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 real and genuine fruits of learning.”