Australian Anglo-Catholics want St Thomas Becket -
who was martyred as Archbishop of Canterbury after having vexed King
Henry II - as the patron of their Ordinariate, reports the Record.
Becket was martyred in his
Cathedral after he angered King Henry II by excommunicating the Bishops
of London and Salisbury for their support of the King, with whom Becket
disagreed on changes to law regarding Church and Crown courts, among
other things.
Australian Anglo-Catholics believe adopting Becket as their patron is
apt, considering how they say they have been ostracised by the Anglican
Church.
St Thomas Becket is immortalised in Canterbury Cathedral, which hosts
one of the four great mediaeval shrines of the Church.
His burial place
was destroyed during the Reformation in seven stages.
Archbishop John Hepworth said that by the time King Henry VIII's
chief minister Thomas Cromwell, who history shows was anti-Christian,
came to finish off the relic there was only the right hand left – the
blessing hand.
It was smuggled across the channel to a Catholic monastery in
Normandy, France where it survived the French revolution and was
venerated.
Surviving pieces of the relic was placed at the altar during recent
Mass celebrations, including during the Anglo-Catholics' 1-3 February
national conference on the Gold Coast.