An Archbishop for All Seasons: St Thomas Becket

01-11-2026Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

I give my life / For the Law of God above the Law of Man
Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliott

We just celebrated the remembrance of St. Thomas Becket this past December 29th. His witness reminds us that every Christian is obliged to lay down his life rather than deny any of the articles of our holy Faith: it was the debt we contracted with Jesus Christ when He adopted us in Baptism and received Confirmation as His Brethren and soldiers.

All are not called to the honor of Martyrdom, that is, all are not required to bear that testimony to the Truth which consists in shedding one's blood for it: but all must so love their Faith as to be ready to die rather than deny it, under pain of incurring the eternal death from which the grace of Our Redeemer has already delivered us. The same obligation weighs still more heavily on the Pastors of the Church. It is the pledge of their oath at ordination.

Hence, we find in almost every page of the History of the Church the glorious names of saintly Bishops, who laid down their lives for the Faith they had delivered to their people. It was the last and dearest pledge they could give of their devotedness to the Vineyard entrusted to them, in which they had spent years of care and toil. The blood of their Martyrdom was more than a fertilizing element – it was a guarantee, the highest that man can give, that the seed they had sown in the hearts of men was in very truth the revealed Word of God.

But beyond the debt, which every Christian has, of shedding his blood rather than denying his Faith – that is, of allowing no threats or dangers to make him disown the sacred ties which unite him to the Church, and through Her to Jesus Christ – beyond this, Pastors have another debt to pay, which is that of defending the liberty of the Church. To kings, rulers, diplomats and politicians in general, there are few expressions so unwelcome as this – the Liberty of the Church; with them it means a sort of conspiracy. The world talks of it as being an unfortunate scandal, originating in priestly ambition. Timid temporizing Catholics regret that it can elicit anyone's zeal and will endeavor to persuade us that we have no need to fear anything, so long as our Faith is not attacked.

Notwithstanding all this, the Church has put upon our altars the glorious St. Thomas Becket, who was slain in his Cathedral in the twelfth century because he resisted a King's infringements on the extrinsic rights of the Church. She sanctions the noble maxim of St. Anselm, one of St. Thomas' predecessors in the See of Canterbury: Nothing does God love so much in this world as the Liberty of His Church; and the Apostolic See declares by the mouth of Pope Pius VIII, in the nineteenth century, the very same doctrine She would have taught by Pope St. Gregory VII, in the eleventh century: The Church, the spotless Spouse of Jesus Christ the Immaculate Lamb, is by God's appointment FREE, and subject to no earthly power (Lit. Apost. ad Epis. Prov. Rhenanae, 30 Jun. 1830).

But what does this sacred Liberty consist of? It consists in the Church's absolute independence of every secular power: in the ministry of the Word of God, which She is bound to preach in season and out of season, as St. Paul says, to all mankind, without distinction of nation or race or age or sex; in the administration of the Sacraments, to which She must invite all without exception, to advance the world's salvation; in the practice, free from all human control of the Gospel teachings; in the unobstructed intercommunication of the several degrees of Her churchmen in the publication and application of Her decrees and ordinances in matters of discipline; in the maintenance and development of the Institutions She has founded; and lastly in the defense of those privileges which have been adjudged to Her by the civil authority itself, in order that Her ministry of peace and charity might be unembarrassed and respected.

St. Thomas was born in England, in the city of London. He succeeded Theobald as Bishop of Canterbury. He had previously acquitted himself with much honor as Chancellor, and was strenuous and unflinching in his duty as Bishop; for when Henry II, King of England, in an assembly of the Bishops and nobles of the realm, passed certain laws inconsistent with the interests and the honor of the Church, the Bishop withstood the King's avarice so courageously that neither fair promises nor threats could draw him over to the King's side, and being in danger of imprisonment, he privately withdrew. Not long after, all his relatives young and old, all his friends and household, were banished, and such of them as had attained the age of discretion had to promise on oath that they would go to St. Thomas, as perhaps he, who could not be made to swerve from his holy purpose by any personal consideration, might relent at the heart-rending spectacle of the sufferings of them who were dear to him. But he regarded not the demands of flesh and blood, neither did he permit the feelings of natural affection to weaken the firmness required of him as Bishop.

He therefore appealed to Pope Alexander III, from whom he met with a kind reception, and who commended him on his departure to the Cistercian Monks of Pontigny. As soon as Henry came to know this, he strove to have St. Thomas expelled from Pontigny, and for this purpose sent threatening letters to the General Chapter of Citeaux. Whereupon the holy man, fearing lest the Cistercian Order should be made to suffer on his account, left the monastery of his own accord, and betook himself to the hospitable shelter to which he had been invited by Louis, King of France. There he remained until, by the intervention of the Pope and King Louis, he was called home from his banishment to the joy of the whole kingdom. Whilst resuming the intrepid discharge of the duty of a good shepherd, certain calumniators denounced him to King Henry as one that was plotting sundry things against the country and the public peace. And so, the King was heard frequently complaining that there was only one Priest in his kingdom with whom he could not be in peace. In Jean Anouilh's 1959 play Becket, Henry says, "Will no one rid me of him? A priest! A priest who jeers at me and does me injury." In the 1964 film Becket, which was based on the Anouilh play, Henry says, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

Certain wicked satellites concluded from this expression of the King that he would be pleased at their ridding him of St. Thomas. Accordingly, they stealthily entered Canterbury, and finding the bishop was in the church officiating at Vespers (Evening Prayer), they began their attack. The clergy were using means to prevent them from entering the church, when the Saint forbade their opposition, and opening the door, thus spoke to them: The church is not to be guarded like a citadel, and I am glad to die for God's Church. Then turning to the soldiers, he said: I command you in the name of God that you hurt not any of them that are with me. After this he knelt down, and commending his church and himself to God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to St. Dionysius, and to the other Patron Saints of his Cathedral, with the same courage that he had shown in resisting the King's execrable laws, he bowed down his head to the impious murderers, on December 29, in the year of Our Lord 1171. He was killed at the altar. God having shown the holiness of his servant by many miracles, he was canonized by the same Pope, Alexander III.

When we meet in the annals of the Church with the names of those great Bishops who have been the glory of the Christian Pontificate, we are at once sure that these men, the true images of the great High Priest Jesus Our Lord, did not intrude themselves uncalled into the dread honors of the Sanctuary. The history of their lives shows us that they were called by God Himself, as Aaron was; and when we come to examine how it was that they were so great, we soon find that the source of their greatness was their humility, which led them to refuse the honorable burden that others would put upon them. God assisted them in the day of trouble and trial, because their exaltation to the episcopacy had been his own work.

Thus, was it with St. Thomas, who sat on his episcopal throne of Canterbury, the dignified and courageous Primate. He began by declining the high honor that was offered him. He boldly told the King, as St. Gregory VII, before ascending the Papal Throne, told the emperor who fain would see him Pope, that if forced to accept the proffered dignity, he was determined to oppose abuses. He thought by this to frighten men from putting him into the honors and responsibilities of the pastoral charge, and hoped that they would no longer wish him to be a Bishop, when they suspected that he would be a true one: but the decree of God had gone forth, and St. Thomas, called by God, was obliged to bow down his head and receive the holy anointing. And what a Bishop he was, who began by humility and the determination to sacrifice his very life in the discharge of his duty!