We awoke early in our rowhome B&B, ready to make the most of our last half-day in Canterbury. After our usual tea, Lauds, and morning prayers, we packed our backpacks and walked to the Roman Catholic Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury to attend 7:30 am mass.
To the right, our packs, walking sticks, and hats--the traditional symbols of Christian pilgrims throughout the centuries--sit waiting for us in the church.
After mass, we grabbed coffee and a quick bite to eat and headed to Canterbury Cathedral, where we were eagerly awaiting the culmination of our pilgrimage at the place of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket.
We arrive at the Cathedral.
Upon arrival, we were met for our final pilgrim blessing by Rev. Ros Parrett, an Anglican chaplain. Reverend Parrett sat with us in front of the altar and spoke to us as friends about our pilgrimage. We were enchanted by her and filled with the sense that she was a holy woman. She spoke to us about the interaction between God's grace and our own wills. This pilgrimage was the result of our own intentional efforts (weeks of preparation, research, physical and spiritual training). But God's grace often transforms the intentional efforts of our wills, in some cases disrupting our plans, but always calling us to some greater mission that we might not readily foresee.
Rev. Parrett placed her hands on our heads individually and bestowed our final pilgrimage blessing to us with heartfelt warmth. She wrote "Blessings for your journey and your life" in our pilgrim passports. We gave her a chaplet in gratitude for her kindness and in praise for her devotion to God.
With Rev. Ros Parrett.
We then proceeded to the Martyr's Chapel, kneeling at the Altar of the Sword's Point, the site of St. Thomas Becket's martyrdom (revisit the bottom of our About page to read about his martyrdom). There we offered our prayers of intercession and thanksgiving to the saint.
Praying before the Altar of the Sword's Point in Canterbury Cathedral. The four shadows of swords formed on the wall behind the sculpture represent the four swords of the knights who slayed Thomas Becket.
The current Altar of the Sword's Point is a 20th century modern replacement of the altar that was established on this site in 1172. The altar, as well as the shrine, tomb, and relics of Becket--what pilgrims on the Pilgrims Way venerated for centuries--were destroyed by the order of Henry VIII in 1538. The original altar contained the broken sword point of Richard le Breton, the knight who dealt the mortal blow to Becket; his strike was so forceful that his sword shattered.
Next to the Altar of the Sword's Point is a plaque commemorating the visit of Pope John Paul II to the Cathedral in 1982, during which he and Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, in a striking symbol of ecumenism, knelt together in prayer at the site of Becket's slaying. At that time, there was no modern altar, so they knelt together in front of a bare wall. Four years after the pope's visit, the modern altar was installed.
Site where the Catholic and Anglican heads of church prayed together in 1982.
The candle burning on the floor marks the place where the shrine of Becket stood from 1220-1538, before it was destroyed by Henry VIII.
We then toured the enormous crypt, where Becket had first been entombed in 1170. Looking up toward the ceiling, we gazed upon a sculpture entitled Transport, created by artist Antony Gormley. The sculpture is an outline of a floating body constructed with iron nails from the Cathedral's south east transept roof. By portraying the body as transparent and pierced by objects from within and without, Gormley shows that "the body is less a thing than a place; a location where things happen."
Transport hangs above the vestry of Becket, where he would have vested his own body in liturgical garments prior to praying the Vespers at which he was slain. We are thus invited to imagine the floating body of Transport as the body of the saint. Becket's body was indeed a 'location where things happen,' not just a thing to be killed. At his martyrdom, his body became the site of the crucifixion once again, his body peacefully proclaiming the truth against violent objectors. And after his martyrdom, his body became a locus sanctus (holy site) where pilgrims were transformed, healed, and touched by grace.
We then walked to the choir in the upper church and met two tour guides, Chris and Jane, who enthusiastically led us through an in-depth walk around the church. We spent a good while examining the many medieval stained-glass windows. The image below shows The Ancestor Windows, depicting life-size (!) figures of the Ancestors of Christ. Some of these windows pre-date the cathedral's fire of 1174, making them the oldest painted windows in Britain. It is very likely that they witnessed the slaying of Thomas Becket. You can learn more about which ancestors of Christ appear in the glass here.
The Ancestors, witnesses to the martyrdom of Thomas Becket. Bottom row, from left to right: Abraham, Salmon, Ezechias, David (as psalmist), Unidentified ancestor, Josiah, Booz, Zorobabel. Top row, from left to right: Joanna, Er, Joseph, David (as king), Nathan, Jonan or Achim, Jose, Jude.
Another window series of note depicts the Miracles at Canterbury following the death of Becket, as recorded in the 12th century text Miracles of St. Thomas of Canterbury by Benedict of Peterborough and William of Canterbury. These windows portrayed the common man for the first time in English ecclesiastical artwork in England. They tell the stories of individuals who experienced healing through praying to Becket and/or visiting his tomb.
The miracle scenes often contain votives, objects that pilgrims brought to the shrine as a concrete sign of their devotion to the saint. In keeping with medieval economic theology of grace, a kind of transaction would occur at the shrine: the pilgrim offered his votive in return for the saint's supernatural power. The importance of votives in pilgrimage is emphasized by the scale of the votives in the windows: they are larger in the windows than they would have been in reality.
Miracles at Canterbury stained glass windows in the Trinity Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral.
The miracle stories portrayed in these windows are varied, often wild, and always fascinating.
One set of windows depicts the Wife of the Earl of Hertford's request for intercession. This faithful woman owned a small private reliquary containing relics of Thomas Becket, which she probably installed in her local church. She visited the reliquary to ask for the saint's help in bringing her son, James, back to life. As votives, she brought a trindle, a large candle, and a golden crown. After retrieving the relics from the shrine, she brought them to her dead son, who was then resurrected.
Another series of windows shows the miraculous healing of Eilward of Westoning. Some backstory: Eilward was a farmer who rented part of his land to man named Fulke, who wasted his money on drinking and refused to pay his rent. In an attempt to reconcile with his leasee, Eilward suggested that Fulke repay only half the debt and keep the rest for drinking, but Fulke refused. Angry at the rejection of his merciful offer, Eilward broke into Fulke's house and took a grindstone and pair of gloves as repayment for the debt. Fulke brutally attacked him in return and accused him of stealing much more than he had. At Eilward's trial, his innocence was tested by water: if he sank, he was innocent, but if he floated, he was guilty. He floated. As punishment, he was castrated and his eyes were gouged out.
The stained glass shows Eilward's unjust punishment in graphic detail, as well as the miraculous rest of the story. After Eilward prayed to Becket for several days, the saint visited him in his dreams, piercing his sleepy eyes with a ray of light. The next day, Eilward's missing eyes and testicles had grown back--though, as noted, his eyes were different colors and his testicles were smaller! In thanksgiving, Eilward made a pilgrimage to Canterbury and told his story to everyone along the way. He even allowed people to see for themselves that everything had regrown.
We were also transfixed by the stunning ceiling in Bell Harry Tower, the crossing tower of the transept, which was added to the cathedral in the late 15th century. The ceiling is a remarkable example of fan vaulting, a Gothic style of vaulting in which the ribs of the vault (the ray-like structures in the image below) are all of the same curve and space equidistantly, resembling a fan.
The vaulted ceiling of the crossing tower.
Of additional interest to us was the Tomb of the Black Prince, Edward of Woodstock (at whose well Frans had drunk yesterday). His bronze effigy, fully armored with hands clasped in prayer, lies atop a marble tomb. Recently, a team of historians and scientists took a closer look at the effigy, and suggested that, because of the accuracy of the armor, it was likely created with the aid of an actual armorer. Above the tomb hangs the Black Prince's surcoat, helmet, shield, and gauntlets. The surcoat brilliantly shows the Prince of Wales' heraldic coat of arms.
The Black Prince's tomb.
The cathedral housed so many other marvels of beauty in praise of God. Click through the slideshow below to be amazed:
After our wonderful tour, we gave our last two chaplets to our guides Chris and Jane in gratitude for their kindness.
Frans gives a chaplet to Jane.
We checked out of our B&B and walked to the Canterbury West train station. There, we boarded our train for a one-hour ride to St. Pancras Station in London, where we will go on to spend the next two days touring under the guidance of one of Lisa's friends.
Scenes from our departure from Canterbury.
As we walked off the train and into the streets of London, we were filled with zeal for a new mission of evangelization, the very mission with which Jesus charged his disciples. Our time in Canterbury and on the Pilgrims' Way has ignited in us a passion for sharing this wonderful experience and our faith.
Walking off into a new direction as pilgrims of life, inspired by Becket and ready for mission.
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