Melissa Keating rounds up the “four best beards in the history of Christendom.” One belonged to St. Thomas More:

Henry VIII condemned St. Thomas More to death after he refused to deny papal supremacy. More had been confined in the Tower of London for over a year (hence the beard, and why it’s not pictured). As the executioner lifted his axe, More asked him to wait. The blindfolded saint-to-be carefully laid his beard on the outside of the block, out of the executioner’s path. “This hath not offended the king,” he quipped, thus protecting his beard from the blade.

Then the axe fell.

You read that correctly. His last words before beholding the Beatific Vision were a beard joke. While that might not fit the modern notion of a saint, it completely matches his personality. One biographer wrote, “that innocent mirth which had been so conspicuous in his life, did not forsake him to the last … his death was of a piece with his life.”

Thomas More was my confirmation saint. Now it makes even more sense.

(Image of a not-so-bearded More at the chopping block via Flickr user CircaSassy)