Preview: Anniversaries of Two Martyrs in England and Ireland

(The candle marks the spot where the great shrine of Saint Thomas of Canterbury once stood, destroyed by Henry VIII's command in 1538, when he suppressed the saint's Cult in England--to no effect in the Catholic Church of course.)

When Thomas More was condemned to death in 1535, he wrote that famous letter to his daughter Meg in which he rejoiced that the date of his execution was July 6, the vigil of one the feasts of Saint Thomas of Canterbury (the translation of his relics into his great shrine after his canonization) and the Octave of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul:

I cumber you, good Margaret, much, but I would be sorry, if it should be any longer than tomorrow, for it is Saint Thomas' Even and the Utas [Octave] of Saint Peter and therefore tomorrow long I to go to God, it were a day very meet and convenient for me. I never liked your manner toward me better than when you kissed me last for I love when daughterly love and dear charity hath not leisure to look to worldly courtesy.

On Monday, July 7, there was a Catholic Mass celebrated in the Anglican Cathedral of Canterbury (sede vacante since January this year) for the celebration of this feast. 

So on Monday, July 14, we'll discuss this anniversary and event on the Son Rise Morning Show; we'll also highlight the celebration in Ireland of the 400th anniversary of Saint Oliver Plunkett's birth! He was the last Catholic priest executed at the end of the Popish Plot hysteria. As usual, I'll be on the air about 7:50 a.m. Eastern/6:50 a.m. Central. Please listen live here or catch the podcast later here.

Catherine Pepinster with Religion News Service began here with the story about this Mass, offered by the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendia:

LONDON (RNS) — King Henry VIII and his iconoclast-in-chief, Thomas Cromwell, would be stunned: Nearly 500 years after the English Reformation, Canterbury Cathedral, the mother church of the Protestant Church of England, will be given over to a Roman Catholic Mass, celebrated by the pope’s own representative in the country in honor of the martyr Thomas Becket, who died in the cathedral in 1170.

Not least among the historical oddities of the day will be that the Mass will award those in attendance a plenary indulgence.

When Henry broke with Rome in 1535 to create the Church of England, it led to the destruction of shrines to saints and martyrs, including their relics. The tradition of offering pilgrims an indulgence for visiting these shrines — a key driver of the Protestant revolt across Europe at the time — was ended.

Tenebrae provided the chant during the Mass; pilgrims could receive the Jubilee Year indulgence; and the congregation sang the Salve Regina! This was an extraordinary event! 

St. Thomas of Canterbury was martyred in 1170 (855 years ago this December 29), canonized in 1173, and his relics were moved on July 7 from the crypt to the Trinity chapel in 1220 (805 years ago).

The other great anniversaries are for Saint Oliver Plunkett: the 400th anniversary of his birth on All Saints Day in 1625 and the 50th anniversary of his canonization on October 12, 1975 (he was beatified in 1920!)

RTE reported on July 4 in advance of the events:

The 400th anniversary of the birth of St Oliver Plunkett is being marked in both Drogheda and the Oldcastle area of Co Meath this year. . . .

A series of events is under way to mark 400 years since St Oliver Plunkett’s birth, and also the 50 years since his canonisation in 1975, when he became the first newly-made Irish saint for almost 700 years.

Tomorrow will see an event titled the 'Plunkett Clan Gathering’ take place at Loughcrew House and Gardens, the ancestral seat of the Plunkett family.

An ecumenical service in the 17th-century church will be followed by historical talks, live music and refreshments, which organisers have said will be a "heartfelt tribute in a place of deep personal resonance for the saint’s descendants".

More details here on a special website for the martyred saint.

These anniversaries and these events demonstrate the great impact of these martyrs and their legacy for the Catholics of England and Ireland!

Saint Thomas of Canterbury, pray for us!

Saint Oliver Plunkett, pray for us!

Devotion to Saint Thomas of Canterbury

I've grown in my spiritual devotion to the Catholic Martyrs of England and Wales of the Reformation era, and I'm also growing in devotion to Saint Thomas of Canterbury, thanks to this book of prayers asking his intercession and meditating on his life and martyrdom.

Saint Thomas has often been seen as an important figure in the conflicts between Church and State: defending the rights of the Church in England against Henry II's attempt to take away the bishops's authority over priests and clergy. But Father John S. Hogan, in this book from Gracewing, Devotions to St Thomas Becket, reminds us that devotion to the martyred saint began as people went on pilgrimage to pray for his intercession, seeking miraculous healings through his prayers.

Therefore, Father Hogan includes prayers to Saint Thomas of Canterbury for the sick, a Litany for the Sick, a Prayer for Miracles, etc.

Father Hogan also reminds us that Saint Thomas of Canterbury grew in his Christian faith, that we find a process of conversion in his life, not just from his secular life at Court with Henry II, but through his exile and other sufferings. Father Hogan declares, "As he slowly woke to the way of true Christian discipleship, his experiences, his mistakes, his trials and sufferings, progressively turned him completely to Christ". (p. x) So there are prayers for conversion, including a Novena for the Grace of Conversion. 

Because Saint Thomas of Canterbury was a priest and bishop Father Hogan includes prayers for priests, for bishops, and a "Eucharistic Prayer", emphasizing Becket's growth in devotion to the Eucharist and to celebrating Mass with great reverence.

Thomas  Becket was born on the 21st of December (in 1119/20) and died on the 29th of December (in 1170), so there's a novena to celebrate the martyr between those dates. Since Canterbury is still a site for pilgrimage, there's a "Seven Stations" series of prayers with landmarks like St. Dunstan's Church, where Henry II started his penitential pilgrimage to the Cathedral in reparation for the martyr's murder, the Cloister of the Cathedral through which both the saint and his killers walked to enter the north transept, the Crypt where his first tomb was located, and the parish church of Saint Thomas of Canterbury, the Catholic shrine to this great saint.

There's also a Litany to St Thomas Becket and other prayers for courage, in time of persecution, etc. Gracewing has also published Father Hogan's biography of the saint.

Saint Thomas of Canterbury, pray for us.

The Cult of St. Thomas of Canterbury in Music

The Cambridge Core website recently announced:

British Catholic History, the journal of the Catholic Record Society, is delighted to announce the winner of its Best Article Prize in 2022:

Katherine Emery, ‘Destruction, Deconstruction, and Dereliction: Music for St Thomas of Canterbury during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, 1530-1600’

Katherine’s article was described by the judges as follows:

‘This is an impressive piece of innovative and interdisciplinary scholarship at the forefront of the 'sonic turn’ in the study of lived religion. Focusing on music written and performed in honour of St Thomas of Canterbury, this carefully researched article looks back to the pre-Reformation world but concentrates on the Tudor period, offering a new narrative of English cultural and religious history. Interleaving rich manuscript research with the parsing of a substantial historiography on devotion to the saint, it offers an original angle on pre-Reformation and Counter-Reformation music making and liturgical performances. This is an outstanding article from an early career scholar which eloquently attests to, and will further advance, the expansion and diversification of British Catholic studies.

The article is available for free now (don't know how long) and here is the abstract:

Between the late-twelfth and early-sixteenth centuries, much music (both liturgical and non-liturgical) was written in honour of St Thomas of Canterbury. However, in the 1530s his cult became a major target for reformers and, in 1538, Henry VIII (1491-1547) ordered the destruction of his shrine and the obliteration of all music written in his honour. This article will examine how music composed to memorialise St Thomas was treated during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. It explores the process of self-censorship prompted by Henry’s proclamation on the cult of St Thomas that led to his erasure from liturgical books in England. It analyses the attempts by reformers to discredit music concerning St Thomas, particularly by radical reformer John Bale (1495-1563). Finally, it examines music that was composed by Catholics for St Thomas during the Counter-Reformation and asks what it can tell us about the state of the cult in the late sixteenth century. This approach results in an overview of St Thomas’ cult during the later sixteenth century and contributes to our understanding of changing conceptions of the saint by Catholic communities in the post-Reformation world.

I'm still reading the article now, but one thing we should keep in mind is that St. Thomas of Canterbury was and is not just a saint in England--he was and is a saint honored by the whole Catholic Church (and he is recognized on the Church of England sanctoral calendar)! For example, in 2016 a relic of St. Thomas was brought back to Canterbury from Hungary. As a British Museum article stated in 2019: "In death Becket remained a figure of opposition to unbridled power and became seen as the quintessential defender of the rights of the Church. To this end you can find images of his murder in churches across Latin Christendom, from Germany and Spain, to Italy and Norway. Becket was, and remains, a truly European saint." That's why Pope Paul III finally issued the Bull announcing Henry VIII's excommunication in 1538 after the King ordered the destruction of St. Thomas's shrine and the desecration of his remains. 

So, for example, when Emery writes: "Yet Becket’s paramount cultural position was not to last forever. Although reformer James Bainham was burnt at the stake partly for daring to question Becket’s saintly status in 1532, by the late 1530s the mood had turned decisively against St Thomas.", her comment applies to England at that time--not to the Catholic Church as a whole.

The Venerabile 2021 Yearbook

Last week I received the 2021 edition of The Venerabile from the Venerable English College in Rome, shipped to me directly from the publishers, Gangemi Editore International. As you'll see on the sidebar of this blog, I'm a member of the Board of Directors for the North American Friends of the Venerable English College (NAFVEC):

The Venerable English College in Rome has been preparing men for Catholic priestly ministry in England & Wales since 1579. It is the oldest British institution outside the United Kingdom.

North American Friends of the Venerable English College was established in 2020 to promote awareness of the “Venerabile” and the history of the College and its Martyrs. It is committed to fostering material and spiritual support for the VEC as a unique Catholic institution and seminary housing an exceptional archival collection.

As a yearbook for a seminary and an historical foundation, some of the articles are of more interest to those who attend or have attended the Venerable English College and their families and friends, but I also found several articles that coincide with my interests, including:

Saint Thomas of Canterbury: a great College patron
Fr John Flynn

A Reflection for Martyrs' Day
Mgr Mark Langham

A Tudor Quincentenary [Henry VIII's Assertio Septem Sacramentorum]
Maurice Whitehead

Hidden Liturgical Books of the English College
Fr Anthony Fyk

News from the College Archives, 2020-21
Maurice Whitehead

Since 2020 was the 800th anniversary year of the infamous Murder in the Cathedral, the cover art is a photograph of the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas of Canterbury in the Martyrs Chapel of the College.

If you are interested in this very well produced and illustrated book, please find more information about it--and past issues--here.

Best wishes for a Blessed Holy Week and Triduum!