A MEDDLESOME PRIEST

A MESSAGE FOR THE FEAST OF ST. THOMAS BECKET

Today’s Sunday within the Christmas Octave this year falls on the feast of St. Thomas, the Archbishop of Canterbury, better known as Saint Thomas Becket, who was murdered on this day in his cathedral.  In one sense, it’s kind of a sad story, the gradual erosion of a great friendship between the English King Henry and Thomas.  In their youth they had been inseparable, together in their hunting, their feasting and even their womanizing.  We should remember, all saints were once sinners, and all sinners have the potential to become saints.  As such, we who are indeed sinners, may take our inspiration from St. Thomas of Canterbury, who ended up putting God first, and giving up his sinful life.  

King Henry, however, was less willing to give up his selfish ways.  In an effort to ensure every effort was being made to enforce the king’s sources of revenue, he decided to appoint his good friend Thomas to the post of Chancellor of England, sure that he could be relied upon to carry out his royal wishes.  Thomas thus became Chancellor in 1155, and at first continued to exact taxes from all landowners, including churches and bishoprics.  However, a few years later in 1162, Thomas was nominated and then elected Archbishop of Canterbury, perhaps a surprising development for the king, as he didn’t think he was particularly religious and wasn’t even a cleric.  However, the Church wasted no time, ordaining him a priest on June 2 and then consecrating him a bishop the very next day.  King Henry was happy at first with Thomas’s appointment to England’s primatial see of Canterbury, no doubt hoping that he would continue to put the wishes of the royal government first rather than the Church.  However, it was at this time that Thomas the sinner changed his lifestyle to that of an ascetic, a holy man who observed the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience.  And that meant obedience to Rome.  It had become his prime duty to protect the rights of the Church, something that would inevitably lead to conflict with his old friend, the King.

Thomas’s last days were fast approaching, thanks to a new-found commitment to his supreme duty to God.  His one-time friend, King Henry, grew more and more frustrated, and around Christmas time in the year 1170, is said to have exclaimed in the presence of some of his loyal knights, those fateful words, “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?”  With this, four of his knights set off for Canterbury.

They arrived there in the late afternoon of December 29^th.  The holy Archbishop was vested in his cope and mitre, preparing to officiate at the Office of Vespers.  As he made his way to the High Altar, word came that the knights were outside the Cathedral armed to the teeth.  The other monks tried to bolt the doors of the church, but Becket said to them, "It is not right to make a fortress out of the house of prayer!" and ordered them to reopen the doors.  The four knights, with swords in their hands, ran in saying "Where is Thomas Becket, traitor to the King and country?" They found Becket in a spot near a door to the monastic cloister, and the stairs leading up into the cathedral, where the monks were chanting vespers.  Upon seeing them, Becket said, "I am no traitor and I am ready to die." One knight grabbed him and tried to pull him outside, but Becket grabbed onto a pillar and bowed his head to make peace with God.

The following is the account of eyewitness Edward Grim, who was wounded in the attack:

“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.”

Soon after, the faithful throughout Europe began venerating Becket as a saint, and on 21 February 1173—little more than two years after his death—he was canonized by Pope Alexander III.  On 12 July 1174, in the midst of the Revolt of 1173–74, Henry humbled himself with public penance at Becket's tomb, which became one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in England.