St. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, defended the Church against royal power and died a martyr. His life united faith, courage, and holiness. The Archbishop of Canterbury was a giant, both in the civil and in the ecclesiastical sphere.
Newsroom (12/29/2025, Gaudium Press) Saint Thomas Becket, a model of the medieval man—and of men in general—made faith the principal thing in his life.
He was also a model of a truly anti-worldly man, because he did not seek the vainglory of this earth: even when he was raised to the highest dignities, he did not hesitate to confront temporal power out of love for God. God first, and then men, including Caesar.
The Saint was born into a family that instilled in him the Catholic faith, the treasure of his entire life.
He studied in London, his native land, and later in Paris, and then returned to England to serve Theobald of Canterbury, who was then Archbishop and Primate of England.
Already in his youth, people remarked upon his purity and his sincerity.
The fame of his supernatural and natural gifts one day reached the king, Henry II Plantagenet, who took him away from the Archbishop. Henry was a very capable man, but also very ambitious. Nevertheless, assistant and monarch joined together faithfully, and the Saint came to be Chancellor of the realm.
Garnier, a French chronicler, says that he was seen overthrowing several enemy warriors—such were his qualities as a knight.
“An accomplished jurist and skilled financier, as capable of an energetic decision requiring armed force as of a legal remedy, he suppressed bandits, terrified usurers, favored agriculture, upheld the standard of the nobility, reorganized justice, increased external prestige, and ensured the prosperity and peace of the kingdom,” said of him his biographer, Fray Justo Pérez de Urbel.
From Chancellor to Archbishop of Canterbury
After Archbishop Theobald died, Henry II told himself that he would not find a Church prelate more faithful to him than Thomas, and so he set his eyes on his Chancellor to replace the Primate of England. But the Saint was frank with him—indeed, prophetic:
“Lord, I want you to know that the favor with which you now honor me will later turn into implacable hatred; for, when it comes to ecclesiastical matters, you have demands that I could not tolerate.”
The king thought that his Chancellor was merely speaking offhandedly and confirmed his election as Primate of England.
Once he became a cleric, the highest in the kingdom, he atoned through penance for the softness of his former life, and although he represented with magnificence the dignity of his exalted office, in private he lived the life and wore the garments of a Benedictine, following the example given by Saint Anselm, one of his predecessors in the dignity of the Archbishopric of Canterbury.
What a giant of a man, both in the civil field and in the ecclesiastical.
Conflicts with the monarch soon begin
Saint Thomas knew that it was his duty to defend the rights of the Church, even if this meant opposing the king, and this gradually deteriorated the relationship between the two, to the point that Henry considered imprisoning him. For this reason, he fled to France, where he was protected by the king of that country.
In 1170, through the mediation of the Pope and the king of France, he returned to England, but the relationship with the monarch was never truly restored.
One day, the king, surrounded by courtiers at his table, uttered words that became the Saint’s death sentence: “Cursed be those whom I feed at my table, honour with my familiarity, and enrich with my benefits, if they do not avenge me against this priest who does nothing but disturb my heart and strip my best servants of their dignities.”
On the night of December 29, 1170, certain nobles—murderers—fulfilled the monarch’s desire and killed the holy Archbishop at the age of 53. He had been Archbishop for nine years, six of which he spent in exile.
News of the crime spread throughout Europe, causing indignation.
The king, shaken by what had occurred and by the reaction it provoked, shut himself inside his palace for several days. Later, he was forced to go in penance to the Saint’s tomb, where he submitted to severe flagellation before the bishops and clergy. He spent the rest of that day in prayer, and the following day as well. The conversion of Henry II was seen as the first miracle of Saint Thomas Becket.
Miracles before the tomb multiplied, and devotion to the murdered holy Archbishop spread throughout all of Europe.
Compiled by Gustavo Kralj
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