Canterbury Cathedral’s 13th-century window depicting St Thomas which can also be seen on an Old Kent Road pub sign and a beer bottle label.
Today Tuesday 29 December is the 850th anniversary of St Thomas Becket being murdered in Canterbury Cathedral.
This December was to have been the culmination of the Becket 2020 year in which the 800th anniversary of his Translation would have been marked as well as the 850th of his death.
This afternoon all who had intended to be at Canterbury, indeed to have walked there during Christmas week like Hilaire Belloc in 1899, can watch Evensong online from Canterbury Cathedral.
St Thomas died during Vespers. Tonight Evensong will include passages from TS Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral premiered at Canterbury in 1935.
February 2023 will be the 850th anniversary of the canonisation of Thomas Becket. Get ready for a chilly walk along the PW that year.
The image of St Thomas Becket, based on pilgrim badge, high above 90 Cheapside on the corner of Ironmonger Lane
Today Monday 21 December is the birthday of St Thomas of Canterbury: Thomas Becket.
His parents were Matilda and Gilbert Becket from Rouen where their son as archbishop was to visit sixty years later as his exile ended.
The baby was baptised Thomas having been born on St Thomas the Apostle Day -now observed in July but then in the Advent calendar.
Today could be the 900th anniversary of Thomas Becket’s birth since many claim he was born in 1120 rather than 1118 as recorded by some other sources.
His birthplace is found opposite Tesco in the City of London’s Cheapside. The site became the Hospital of St Thomas and until the 1530s had a statue of the saint facing the street.
The successor church is the Mercers’ Chapel within Mercers’ Hall which is reached by way of Ironmonger Lane to the west.
Through the window of Becket House in Old Jewry, on the east side, can be seen a scaled up linocut of Cyril Power’s depiction of the violent murder of St Thomas Becket.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby next to the Thomas Becket icon by Susan Moberley in Southwark Cathedral. (Photo: Southwark Diocese)
“Becket’s cause is not our own,” said his successor Justin Welby speaking at Southwark Cathedral on Friday.
“We do know better than him in some areas. But too often his courage is not our own either; the courage that puts our all in the hands of God, and like the modern martyrs sees death as simply the cost of discipleship.”
The present Archbishop of Canterbury was preaching during Choral Evensong on the 850th anniversay of predecessor St Thomas Becket visiting the cathedral days before his murder.
Justin Welby reminded the congregation that today the Church does not usually seek to avoid secular law. But he did invoke the example of ‘the 20th-century Becket’ St Oscar Romero whose national shrine is at St George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Southwark.
Dean of St George’s Richard Hearn brought a relic of St Thomas from his cathedral for the service.
“What is wrong is wrong, and at times that necessitates confrontation with the courage of Becket – albeit not his cause,” said Archbishop Welby.
“That courage was found in Jeremiah and in St Paul. In the apostles before the Sanhedrin. In Paul before the Emperor. In our living memory, Bonhoeffer before the Nazi court. Oscar Romero before his Government.”
“It is found around the world, anonymously, today in hidden fields in Northern Nigeria, on the beaches of Libya, in prisons unknown and dark places forgotten. It is found where brave people stand for the light that Christ sheds, sometimes unknowingly, and hold to the truth that the darkness will never quench the light.”
Later the Archbishop added: “When children go hungry in 21st century Britain, we must speak – because God says so in scripture. We heard it in the Magnificat just a few moments ago.
“When aid to the world’s poorest is cut, we must speak – because Christ commands a bias to the poor, not the trickle-down theory of economics; to love our neighbours like the Good Samaritan did when the ‘neighbour’ was just a human being in trouble from an enemy country of which he knew little.
“When the refugee or the immigrant are vilified. When a Muslim woman cannot go on public transport without insult, or a Christian cannot read a bible without persecution. When a man has his neck knelt on till he suffocates. When a pastor is arrested for speaking of Christ, the Church of that and every country must say this is wrong, whatever the democratic vote or popular thinking or Government collusion.
“Paul is on the point of death when he writes to Timothy. He speaks of the love of Christ and the hope of salvation proclaimed whether it leads to trouble or not. He speaks of truth which a loving Church seeks and proclaims in each generation. He speaks of urgency, not political expedience.”
The service remembered not just Southwark’s Becket anniversary but, due to the virus, was the opening of the delayed Becket 2020 programme marking the 850 murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury. Its cathedral is marking the actual anniversary on Tuesday 29 December.
Both cathedrals are preparing for the resumption of pilgrimage along the Southwark to Canterbury Pilgrims’ Way next year.
The Archbishop’s full text is on his website. A recording of the service is on YouTube.
The Archbishop preaching with the St Thomas relic on the altar. (Photo:Southwark Diocese)Two tall candles representing St Thomas (right) and Marion Marples (left) made to their height by artist Michelle Rumney. Pilgrimage expert Marion was working on highlighting the London-Canterbury route when she died suddenly last year.
Today 850 years ago St Thomas Becket was at Southwark Priory.
St Thomas of Canterbury had been welcomed by crowds along the Old Kent Road and in Borough High Street.
The occasion will be recalled tonight in Southwark Cathedral, the old priory, during choral evensong.
A relic of the saint is being brought by the Dean of Southwark’s Roman Catholic St George’s Cathedral.
A candle made to the height of St Thomas will be lit.
The Dean of Canterbury will lead the prayers.
Whether Thomas Becket arrived on Thursday 10 December or today is a matter of continuing debate. What is certain is that he was in Southwark on Friday 11 December 1170.
This was just eighteen days before his murder in Canterbury Cathedral.
On arrival in 1170 Archbishop Becket was met at the church door by the canons and tonight in 2020 the canons are welcoming Archbishop Justin Welby to preach.
In 1170 St Thomas spent the night next door in the Bishop of Winchester’s house. The entrance is now Winchester Walk opposite the cathedral and the remains of the main building can be seen behind Borough Market in Clink Street. The kitchen is now a Pret a Manger.
The service is being broadcast live this evening Friday 11 December at 5.30pm on Facebook, YouTube and the Southwark Cathedral website .
The Candles: The Becket candle was part of Michelle Rumney’s Lenten art installation featuring pilgrimage but seen only for a short time before the Covid lockdown. A second candle is made to the height of pilgrimage pioneer Marion Marples who died suddenly last year having worked on the reawakening of the Pilgrims’ Way for Becket 2020.
Remains of the Bishop of Winchester’s dining hall in Clink Street
At Lesnes Abbey you will find the Chestnuts refreshment kiosk with outdoor seating open daily until 3pm (weekends 4pm) up to Christmas and in the New Year.
The Pilgrims’ Way within Greater London is a two day walk. Until allowed to go further you could walk back to Southwark from Erith on the Thames Path.
St Andrew’s Day 30 November is not an important day only in Scotland.
St Andrew has been patron of Rochester Cathedral since 604 when Justus established the first church.
Justus arrived from Rome to support the existing mission of St Augustine who had come from the monastery of St Andrew & St Gregory in Rome, now known as San Gregorio Magno al Celio.
Justus was the first Bishop of Rochester and later Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Rochester Diocesan shield features of the Cross of St Andrew and a pilgrim shell. The latter is a reminder of St William of Perth who was murdered outside Rochester in 1201 whilst on his way to visit the then crypt shrine of St Thomas Becket at Canterbury.
This year “is full of anniversaries: 40 years since Oscar Romero was assassinated; 100 years since Joan of Arc’s canonisation; 850 years since the killing of Becket; 50 years since the canonisation of the 40 martyrs of England and Wales,” says Catherine Pepinster.
Catherine Pepinster’s new book Martyrdom: Why Martyrs Still Matterembraces St Thomas Becket and is extremely timely despite Becket 2020 events being postponed by the virus.
Her main six page section on Becket, who appears again and again through the book, is a good introduction.
Also featured are a number of the PW saints. On pilgrimage we meet St Oscar Romero in Southwark’s Roman Catholic St George’s Cathedral and again in Canterbury.
Catherine devotes a chapter to Oscar Romero, a 20th-century ‘Becket’ murdered in church by the state. Within hours of Romero’s assassination Archbishop Robert Runcie publicly knelt to pray for his soul at the site of Becket’s murder.
It is suggested that both Becket and Romero were considered to be irritants who were expendable.
Also making an appearance is St Thomas More. Walkers meet him in Southwark where his head was put on a London Bridge stake and find that head in St Dunstan’s Church on approaching Canterbury’s city gate.
He famously declared himself, like Becket, to be “the king’s good servant and God’s first”.
Thomas Becket and Thomas More “are people of conscience whose sacrifice resonates with contemporary audiences,” claims the author.
St John Fisher of Rochester is shown as standing by Katharine of Aragon despite the consequences. The Pope tried to save the bishop from death by making him a cardinal but Henry VIII threatened to send Fisher’s decapitated head to Rome for the red hat.
Much more is covered in this thorough book: many countries, eras, other faiths claiming martyrs and 20th-century suffragettes.
Also included is a look at the English Reformation which paused pilgrimage. At this time the new English College in Rome had a large painting of Becket to inspire students. Now the annual Martyrs’ Day at the college is a Christian unity occasion with Anglicans and Methodists present.
The book was completed after Covid shut down the country which enables the author to reflect that, although the planned Becket 2020 events are cancelled, many were to have been ecumenical. Pilgrimage today is one of the great signs of living and growing Christian unity as people of all churches and none begin to understand history.
In the 21st-century it is natural for Canterbury Cathedral and Santa Maria Maggiore to be ready, as Catherine reports, to cooperate in honouring Thomas Becket.
Replica of a 14th-century pilgrim token showing Thomas Becket on a horse is available from Canterbury Cathedral shop (£14.99).
With the approach of Advent we can soon start to follow in real time the weeks before the murder of Thomas Becket 850 years ago.
At the start of December the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket returned to from exile in France by landing at Sandwich in his diocese.
His ride into Canterbury through cheering crowds was compared to Christ on Palm Sunday.
The following week, Becket set off for Southwark. Although it was winter with short daylight hours, he managed to ride in a day.
A brief confirmation service at Newington near Sittingbourne took place by the main road saving the archbishop from having to turn off to the church which lies to the north.
The 850th anniversary of Becket’s visit to Southwark Cathedral (called Southwark Priory in 1170) is being marked during Choral Evensong on Friday 11 December when the saint’s successor Justin Welby will preach.
Representatives from nearby St George’s Roman Catholic Cathedral Southwark will be present. The Dean of Canterbury, the Very Revd Robert Willis, is coming up the PW for the occasion.
Flickering before the altar will be a candle made to the height of St Thomas Becket and another the exact height of Marion Marples who promoted the Santiago pilgrimage and, just before her unexpected death last year, helped to prepare the reawakening of the PW for this anniversary year.
Becket spent at least the first night of his visit in the house near to the cathedral which is now the familiar preserved ruin in Clink Street.
After about a week, having gone to Harrow and been snubbed by Henry II’s courtiers, Becket returned home. That journey took two days and after Dartford was by way of the Darenth Valley and Otford with an overnight stop at Wrotham.
This is the route we follow today from Southwark to Canterbury.
