About | The Mass of St John Fisher

About St John Fisher

John Fisher (c. 19 October 1469 – 22 June 1535) was an English Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Rochester from 1504 to 1535 and as chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He is honoured as a martyr and saint by the Catholic Church.

St John Fisher was executed by order of Henry VIII during the English Reformation for refusing to accept him as Supreme Head of the Church of England and for upholding the Catholic Church's doctrine of papal supremacy and the independence of the Church from control by the State. He was named a cardinal shortly before his death.

Pope Pius XI canonized John Fisher on 19 May 1935 as representatives of the many Catholic martyrs of England. His feast day is 22 June in the current General Roman Calendar of the Catholic Church.

About Mike Walsh

Actually, I'm not officially a composer and I've spent my working life as an engineer/technologist working most recently in the satellite/space sector.

But I've always loved music and have played in bands since an early age, as well as at church, originally in Manchester, then London in the early 80s, St Albans after that until 2019, and now in Ss Francis & Therese in Northampton.

What got me into this was being caught out in 2010/2011, and not having reailsed that there was a new english translation of the Mass - all the settings of old had become "out-of-date". I quickly pulled a new setting of the Gloria together and shared the idea with a few friends. It seemed to go down well, and we ended up using it at Masses at a Celebrate Conference weekend in St. Albans.

Back in church, other mass settings were emerging, for example by Curtis Stephan, Matt Maher and so on, and I liked them all. But when somebody asked me one day why I hadn't written the other Mass parts - Kyrie, Sanctus and so on - I didn't have an answer, and it spurred me on. It's taken many many years to finish it, but finally, I've finished changing it, so here it is, for you to use, free of charge, if you'd like to.

Why St John Fisher ?

There are many churches and schools dedicated to St John Fisher across England and Wales, including the JMI school in St Albans which my children attended when they were young.

Additionally, the main hall at that school was also used for Mass on Sunday mornings - it was one of two Mass Centres, separate from the main church in the geographically spread parish of Ss Alban & Stephen, and where I led music one week in five. Naming this the Mass of St John Fisher was the obvious thing to do, as was dedicating it a close friend Mario, who also attended that Mass, and who passed away in 2017.