Feature
The Growing Company of Martyrs
Reflections from Canterbury Cathedral’s East Chapel
The day is overcast. Rain has just passed over Canterbury. I have come from London by an easy, non-penitential train journey of 90 minutes; pilgrims in Chaucer’s era would have taken weeks to walk the distance.
I follow the bend of the city wall, past gardens of red-flowering horse chestnut trees, until the cathedral’s bell tower comes into view. For a moment I experience what I felt so briefly on the train: a kindred sense of identity, albeit undeserved, with footsore pilgrims as they approached Canterbury’s spires.
Towering as well over the city’s landscape is an act of faith made more than 800 years ago: the martyrdom of Thomas Becket. He was murdered in the cathedral shortly before vespers on December 29, 1170. Becket, once the king’s chancellor and then as archbishop of Canterbury the king’s arch-adversary, had his skull severed by swordblows. Four Norman knights had interpreted King Henry II’s outburst—“Who will rid me of this turbulent priest!”—as a royal command, and had hurried to Canterbury to demand that Becket recant the positions that put him at odds with the king. When the archbishop refused, they brutally killed him.
In the wake of Becket’s death and ensuing miracles attributed to his intercession, Canterbury soon rivaled Rome and Santiago de Compostela as Europe’s most famous pilgrimage destination. Over the years pilgrims traveled to Becket’s shrine for a host of reasons, often in penance or thanksgiving, at times in search of healing. But the cathedral now beckons for a lesser-known reason. Not far from the murder site, visitors enter into a story of contemporary Christian martyrdom.
Ready to Die
I arrive at the great West Door in time for services, and an usher leads me into a well-lit Quire, the narrow, intimate setting between the vast nave and the main altar. A boys’ choir sings “O clap your hands” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, accompanied by trumpet and organ that echo off the carved stone. From the Gospel of Matthew a priest reads of Christ’s promise to the disciples: “Lo, I am with you always.”
Only a few yards from here, with his back to a pillar, Thomas Becket confronted the knights: “For the name of Jesus and the protection of the Church I am ready to embrace death.”
What gave the archbishop such resolve? I glance along the Quire wall to the crucifix. Lest there be any doubt, Becket’s words as he faced death—“Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit”—link Canterbury’s stones to Calvary’s cross.
The martyrdom site itself, in the north transept near steps leading to the cloisters, seems startlingly unobtrusive. Becket, whose piety prompted him to wear a hairshirt and daily wash the feet of 13 beggars, would no doubt have appreciated the inconspicuous location. It was Becket’s life as well as his death that drew the faithful. After being named archbishop by King Henry II, “he put off the secular man,” observed a contemporary monk, “and put on Jesus Christ.”
As the four knights pursued him, they shouted, “Where is Thomas Becket, traitor to the king and the kingdom?” Thomas had begun to climb steps into the north transept but came down the stairs to meet his attackers. According to eyewitnesses, a sword blade sliced through his head with such force that the metal shattered as it struck the stone floor.
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more on martyrdom from the online archives
more from the online archives
29.1—Jan/Feb 2016
on Marriage, Moral Corruption & the Christian Duty of Witness by Regis Nicoll
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