5th Day in the Octave of the Nativity

Commemoration of St. Thomas à Becket

Proper on p. 216, 879.

Saint Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is the Martyr of the liberties of the Church, in the 12th century. Henry II, king of England, wished him to sanction customs contrary to the liberties of the Church. St. Thomas knew that to make this divine society subservient to the secular power, would be to violate her very constitution, and therefore as Bishop he would willingly suffer death in defense of the Church of Christ. He was slain in his cathedral by the king's soldiers on December 29th, 1170.