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Detail of St Thomas of Canterbury
Father Lawrence Lew, OP via Flickr. Licensed cc

What to know about St. Thomas Becket

  • Priests have been attacked and murdered in their churches even in this century. But Thomas Becket may be the original. His assassination was on December 29, 1170.
  • St. Thomas wasn’t just a priest, he was the Archbishop of Canterbury!
  • After his murder, Thomas Becket was the most venerated person in European Christendom for centuries after.
  • Making this tragedy even worse (and really what could be worse than murdering the archbishop with swords on the stairs of the altar?) his death was ordered by his former best friend, King Henry II.
  • The best way to make a martyr is to kill someone fighting for a cause. Becket was killed because he was protecting the church.

“Devotion to him spread like wildfire. he was enshrined in the hearts of men, and in their arts. In statues and stained glass, in song and story, this good bishop was everywhere to be found: France, Italy, Spain and Sweden. Many miracles were attributed to his heavenly advocacy.”

Excerpted from Days of the Lord.
  • We have an eyewitness account that survives to this day, by Edward Grim, a Canterbury monk.
  • Oh … and by government mandate, all art, relics, windows or anything that mentioned St. Thomas Becket was to be destroyed by order of King Henry VIII. Are we seeing a pattern here after Christmas of the dangers of government mandates?
  • Devotion to St. Thomas remained and artifacts surved. We even have hist last Christmas Homily.

Ways to Celebrate

The movie about St. Thomas Becket (starring Richard Burton ) is available on Youtube  and streaming on Amazon Prime. on VHS via Amazon and streaming with Prime. 

Also, the Exorcist Files Podcast has a few episodes of experiences with a demoniac who claimed to inhabit the man that killed St. Thomas Becket and the use of an relic from the saint that was used to cast him out. These episodes aren’t for children, but mature teens and adult might find them interesting and faith affirming.





Findagrave – Thomas Becket
Findagrave – King Henry II

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