Blessed Thomas à Becket (December 29th)

The Blessed Thomas Becket of Canterbury

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

Today, the 29th of December, we remember the Blessed Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury! 

Thomas was born to Saxon parentage under Norman rule, on the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, in an underprivileged and oppressed social position. His father was a pious Christian, but his mother did not become a Christian until after her marriage to Thomas’ father. He was raised as a Christian, taught grammar in the local parish, and, after his parents died, was raised up within the monastic university system as a young man, being ordained a deacon and studying canon law. 

An Illumination of Thomas Becket and King Henry II in Debate

As a Canonist, Thomas came into contact with many of the hierarchy, quickly being elevated to the status of clerk, and eventually served the Archbishop of Canterbury, Theobald of Bec. After experience serving the King, Henry II, the King himself decided to elevate him to the position of Lord Chancellor with the blessing of Archbishop Theobald, and had Thomas administer the kingdom in his name. Immediately upon the death of Archbishop Theobald, Henry elected Thomas for the position of Archbishop, expecting him to be an obedient representative of royal interests in the Church, and Thomas was ordained priest on June 2nd, 1162, and consecrated as Archbishop on June 3rd, the day after. 

The Enthronement of Thomas Becket

The Exile of Thomas Becket

The Return of Thomas Becket to England

As Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas changed his lifestyle, gave his possessions to the poor, and took up hard ascetic penance. Wearing a rough woolen habit, engaging in long fasts, and encouraging a monastic reformation in the Church, Thomas’ sudden change was disturbing to the King and the Court, who had appointed him to be an ally to the State. This angst was furthered by Thomas’ resignation of the chancellorship, which removed Thomas from secular life. By 1163, Thomas was at odds with King Henry, and was pressing for all of the extended canonical rights of the Archbishopric to be restored to their condition before William the Conqueror. This undermined Norman authority and set Henry against Thomas in a dramatic way. 

King Henry tried to force allegiance or resignation through the Constitutions of Clarendon, which claimed to reestablish the relationship of Church and State to what it had been under Henry I, dramatically reducing the rights and claims of the Archbishopric. The new law also held clergy in double jeopardy, because they were to be tried by secular court after defrockment, and death and mutilations were common punishments from which the clergy were traditionally exempted. Henry rallied the other bishops against Thomas in the reception of his Constitutions by granting them concessions and lands, and the Archbishop was forced to flee to France with his family in exile. 

Pope Alexander III heard of the degradations of the Archbishop and ruled against Henry’s Constitutions, brokering the restoration of Thomas to Canterbury. Archbishop Thomas returned home in 1170, resuming the Archepiscopal throne. However, a conflict broke out almost immediately over which bishop had the right to coronate of the young prince, Henry the Young, and the King was once again at odds with Thomas. Several years of conflict ensued, and King Henry was increasingly distraught at Thomas' success in restoring the Archbishopric to a central place of importance in England. Overhearing the King complain out loud, “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” Reginald Fitz Urse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy, and Richard le Breton, four knights in the Court of King Henry, took this as a command and immediately rode out to capture Thomas. Arriving before vespers on December 29th, 1173, the knights demanded the Archbishop surrender himself to them and go to Winchester to submit to secular judgment. The Archbishop refused, and the knights slew Thomas before the side altar within the Cathedral with sword blows to the head. It is reported that the Blessed Thomas said, “I am ready to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace.”

Medieval Illumination of the Martyrdom

Renaissance Painting of the Martyrdom

High Renaissance Illuminated Manuscript of the Martyrdom of Blessed Thomas Becket

A Mural of the Martyrdom of Thomas Becket, Hidden under Plaster in the South Newington Church, St. Peter and Paul's

Icon of Blessed Thomas from the Santa Maria de Terrassa, Spain

Full Apse Decoration of the Martyrdom of Thomas Becket, Santa Maria de Terrassa, Spain

De Grim’s hagiography states: 

“...the impious knight... suddenly set upon him and [shaved] off the summit of his crown which the sacred chrism consecrated to God... Then, with another blow received on the head, he remained firm. But with the third the stricken martyr bent his knees and elbows, offering himself as a living sacrifice, saying in a low voice, "For the name of Jesus and the protection of the church I am ready to embrace death." But the third knight inflicted a grave wound on the fallen one; with this blow... his crown, which was large, separated from his head so that the blood turned white from the brain yet no less did the brain turn red from the blood; it purpled the appearance of the church... The fifth – not a knight but a cleric who had entered with the knights... placed his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr and (it is horrible to say) scattered the brains with the blood across the floor, exclaiming to the rest, ‘We can leave this place, knights, he will not get up again.’”

Thomas was quickly recognized as a saint, and his cult spread throughout Western Europe, becoming as popular in Italy and Spain as in England. So great was the response throughout Christendom to the Blessed Thomas’ martyrdom that Henry was forced to do penance at his grave, or risk a crusade by other Catholic rulers against England. Many miracles were attributed to his relics, and a great shrine was built with royal wealth for his crypt in Canterbury Cathedral. Blessed Thomas was used by papal reformers to represent the superiority of the claims of the Church above the State, and the submission of local royal authority to the spiritual authority of the Pope in Rome. As such, The Blessed Thomas’ martyrdom was used as an Ultramontanist vehicle for the ever-increasing centralization and secular administration of the Papacy, and a way to further minimize the local administration of the Church through the Archepiscopal office, which had actually been the concern of St. Thomas to restore and protect. Due to the success of the Blessed Thomas in bringing the English State into submission, he was identified as a primary enemy of Henry VIII’s Reformation, which led to the complete destruction of his shrine in Canterbury and an attempt to wipe out all relics associated with his life. All icons and reliquaries that commemorate his life were either covered, burned or buried. 

Reliquary for the Bloody Amice of Blessed Thomas

A French Casket Made for the Relics of Blessed Thomas, Depicting the Martyrdom 

The Opening Pages of the Blessed Thomas' Psalter Book

Remarkably, in 2014, the Blessed Thomas’ Psalter Book, which was known as a great relic of the 10th century Archbishop Alphege, martyred by the Danes while holding this very same Psalter, was rediscovered in a library in Cambridge. A relic of Blessed Thomas’ that escaped the wrath of Henry VIII, the stripping of the altars, and the ravages of 500 years of Protestantism! 

Although the Blessed Thomas is not officially on the Vicariate’s calendar, due to being born at the time of the spreading Schism between East and West, we admire and commemorate his holiness of life, Orthodoxy of vision, and martyrdom for the Name of Christ. He is an important pillar of the English Church inheritance and his story needs to be known by all Anglican rite Orthodox Christians. 

Collect

ALMIGHTY GOD, who for the defence of Thy Church didst suffer Thy glorious Bishop Thomas of Canterbury to fall by the swords of wicked men: grant, we beseech Thee, that all who call upon him for succour may rejoice in the fulfilment of their petitions. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who livest and reignest with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.

A Reconstruction of the Shrine of Thomas Becket before the Reformation, Trinity Chapel, Created by the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture, University of York

Contemporary Shrine of Thomas Becket, Marking the Place of His Martyrdom