DECEMBER 29 – ST. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY.
ST. THOMAS, son of Gilbert Becket, was born in Southwark, England, A.D. 1117. When a youth he was attached to the household of Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, who sent him to Paris and Bologna to study law. He became Archdeacon of Canterbury, then Lord High Chancellor of England; and in 116, when Archbishop Theobald died, the king insisted on the consecration of St Thomas in his stead. St. Thomas refused, warning the king that from that hour their friendship would be broken. In the end he yielded, and was consecrated. The conflict at once broke out; St. Thomas resisted the royal customs, which violated the liberties of the Church and the laws of the realm. After six years of contention, partly spent in exile, St. Thomas, with full. foresight of martyrdom before him, returned as a good shepherd to his Church. On the 29th of December, 1170, just as vespers were beginning, four knights broke into the cathedral, crying: “Where is the archbishop? where is the traitor?” The monks fled, and St. Thomas might easily have escaped. But he advanced, saying: “Here I am-no traitor, but archbishop. “What seek you?” “Your life,” they cried. “Gladly do I give it,” was the reply; and bowing his head, the invincible martyr was hacked and hewn till his soul went to God. Six months later Henry II submitted to be publicly scourged at the Saint’s shrine, and restored to the Church her full rights.
REFLECTION: “Learn from St. Thomas,” says Father Faber, “to fight the good fight even to the shedding of blood, or, to what men find harder, the shedding of their good name by pouring it out to waste on the earth.”
WORD OF THE DAY
CONFESSIO. A term originally applied to the tomb of a martyr. Later it came to mean the altar erected over the tomb, the underground room that contained the tomb, or even the new resting place to which the remains of the martyr were transferred, or the hollow reliquary in an altar. The most famous confessio, in the sense of a tomb, is that of St. Peter, under the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)
DAILY ADVENT MEDITATIONS
Deepen your appreciation of the Incarnation and our salvation with The Great Truths Series by Fr. Richard Clarke S.J. Read today’s “The Little Maid & The Companions of Heaven” but consider this:
If this is the case with those who are still full of imperfections and faults, how much more in heaven, where every one will be purged of all that offends us in them on earth! Every one of the saints and angels will be not only a congenial but a most delightful companion.
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