St. Thomas Becket

Biography

St. Thomas Becket (c. 1120–1170) was born in London, the son of a Norman merchant family. After studies in London and Paris, he entered the household of Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him on missions to Rome and made him archdeacon. In 1155 the young King Henry II made Thomas his chancellor, and the two became close friends. Thomas served the king ably and lived in great splendor. In 1162, at Henry's wish, he was ordained a priest and consecrated archbishop of Canterbury. To the king's dismay, Thomas changed profoundly: he resigned the chancellorship, took up a life of prayer and penance, and gave generously to the poor. When Henry sought greater royal control over the Church, especially over clergy accused of crimes, through the Constitutions of Clarendon in 1164, Thomas refused to accept them and fled to France, where he spent six years in exile, partly at the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny. A fragile reconciliation allowed him to return to Canterbury in December 1170, but new conflict followed. Taking the king's angry words as a command, four knights went to Canterbury and killed Thomas in his cathedral on December 29, 1170. His death shocked Christendom. Pope Alexander III canonized him in 1173, and in 1174 Henry did public penance at his tomb, which became one of the great pilgrimage sites of Europe.

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