England - "The Dowry of Mary" - Part 3: Two telling signs of a forgotten past...

While in England I had the opportunity to visit Canterbury on December 29th, the feast of St. Thomas Becket. Our Diocesan 'Becket Hall,' where I lived last year, takes its name from this saint.

This 12th century Archbishop was martyred in his own Cathedral by the agents of King Henry II on account of St. Thomas' valiant defense of the rights of the Church.

For three hundred years his tomb had a central place in the Cathedral behind the main altar and became one of the largest centers of pilgrimmage in medieval Europe. Now all that is left where the tomb once stood is a small candle.


The sign pretty much says it all about the revolution that took place.


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A village formerly known as 'Tyburn,' now in the middle of modern day London near the Marble Arch, served for several centuries as major site for public execution of London criminals. In 1571, the 'Tyburn Tree,' a triangular-shaped gallows, was erected at that locale and it was upon this very gallows that over 100 Catholic martyrs (including St. Edmund Campion) gave their lives in defense of the Catholic faith.

In a previous post about the English College in Rome, I mentioned that English students would study there overseas and be ordained priests in order to journey back to their native land offer the sacraments to persecuted Catholics. This is where that journey ended.

All that is left of this infamous site is a hardly noticeable sidewalk marker in the center of a busy traffic junction.