This Week in Christian History: Tolstoy excommunicated, Quakers protest slavery, Thomas Becket canonized

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, February 17, 2019

Thomas a Becket canonized – February 21, 1173

A Medieval illustration depicting the assassination of Archbishop Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. | (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

This week marks the anniversary of when Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas a Becket was famously martyred in Canterbury Cathedral in response to his rivalry with King Henry II.

Pope Alexander III officially declared Becket a saint less than three years after he was brutally murdered by four knights who were supportive of King Henry.

In the centuries since his death and canonization, Becket has become synonymous with freedom of religious conscience in the face of state-sponsored oppression.

The Becket Fund, a law firm that specializes in religious liberty cases and has argued litigation before the United State Supreme Court, took their name from the Medieval saint.