De sancto Thoma cántuariensi

De sancto Thoma cántuariensi

The name Thomas is interpreted as "abyss," "twin," or "sects." He was an "abyss"—that is, profound in humility, which is evident in his wearing of a hair shirt and his washing of the feet of the poor; he was a "twin" in his leadership, for he presided with a twofold authority, namely by word and by example; and he was "sects" in his passion. A. While Thomas of Canterbury was serving in the King of England's court, he saw things happening there that went against religious life, so he left the court and placed himself under the Archbishop of Canterbury, who made him an archdeacon. Yet, at the bishop's own request, he took on the King’s chancellery so that, with his inherent prudence, he might prevent wicked men from insulting the Church; the King loved him so much that, after the Archbishop’s death, he ensured he was elevated to the cathedral honor. Although he resisted greatly, he eventually bowed his shoulders to carry the burden at the command of obedience. Suddenly, however, he was transformed into a different, perfect man, and he mortified his flesh with a hair shirt and fasting. He didn't just wear a hair shirt; he also wore hair-cloth drawers down to his knees. Yet he hid his holiness so subtly that, while always maintaining strict propriety, he remained in harmony with the customs of others through the decency of his clothing and his household appointments. Every day, he would wash the feet of thirteen poor men on bended knees, and after they were refreshed, he would send them away with four silver coins for each. The King, however, strove to bend him to his own will to the detriment of the Church, wishing that the customs his predecessors had held against the liberty of the Church might be similarly confirmed by him. Because he refused to give his consent entirely, he provoked the anger of the king and the princes against himself. On one occasion, when he was pressured by the king along with other bishops—to the point that the king even threatened him with death—he was misled by the advice of great men and gave his verbal consent to the king's wish. But seeing the danger to souls that this posed, he later tormented himself severely in penance and suspended himself from the office of the altar until he could merit being restored by the Supreme Pontiff. Finally, the king demanded that he confirm in writing what he had said verbally, but he resisted this manfully and left the court, carrying his cross himself, while the wicked shouted against him: "Seize the thief, hang the traitor!" And behold, two great and faithful nobles came to him in tears and swore under oath that many nobles had conspired to kill him. Therefore, the man of God, fearing for the Church more than for himself, fled; he was received by Pope Alexander at Sens and entrusted to the monastery of Pontigny, and later he arrived in France. The king, however, having sent to Rome so that legates might come to settle this matter, suffered a total rejection and, because of this, was stirred to even greater anger against the archbishop. Consequently, the king plundered everything that belonged to the archbishop and his people, and condemned his entire family to exile, showing no regard for their condition, sex, rank, or age. He himself, however, prayed daily for the king and for the kingdom of England. The archbishop received a revelation that he would return to his church and depart to Christ with the palm of martyrdom; therefore, in the seventh year of his exile, he was allowed to return and was welcomed by everyone with honor. — 2. A few days before his martyrdom, a young man who had left his body and later returned miraculously said that he had been led to the highest order of saints and had seen a vacant seat among the apostles. When he asked whose seat it was, an angel replied that it was being kept for a great priest of the English. A certain priest celebrated Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin every day; he was accused to the archbishop, summoned by him, and suspended from his office as an ignorant and unlearned man. When Blessed Thomas needed to sew his hair shirt and had hidden it under his bed to find time to mend it, the Blessed Virgin appeared to the priest and said, 'Go to the archbishop and tell him that she for whose love you were saying Masses has mended his hair shirt, which is in such-and-such a place, and has left there the red silk thread with which she mended it.' She therefore sends word to him that he must lift the interdict he had placed upon you. Hearing this and finding it to be true, he was astonished and, lifting the interdict, commanded the priest to keep it a secret. He defended the rights of the Church as before, and wasn't swayed by the king through force or entreaty. When he couldn't be swayed in the least, the King's armed soldiers arrived, shouting and demanding to know where the archbishop was. He went to meet them and said, "Here I am; what do you want?" They replied, "We've come to kill you, and you won't live any longer." He said to them, "I am ready to die for God, and for the defense of justice and the freedom of the Church." If you are looking for me, then in the name of Almighty God and under pain of anathema, I forbid you to harm any of these people; but I commend the cause of the Church and my own self to God, to the Blessed Mary, to all the saints, and to the blessed Dionysius. After he said this, his venerable head was struck by the swords of the wicked, the sacred crown of his head was cut off, his brain was scattered across the floor of the church, and the martyr was consecrated to the Lord in the year of our Lord 1174. So, while the clergy were beginning the Requiem and celebrating the Mass for the dead on his behalf, suddenly, as the story goes, choirs of angels appeared, interrupted the singers, and began the Mass of the martyr, singing 'The just man shall rejoice in the Lord,' and the rest of the clergy joined in. This is the true change of the right hand of the Most High, when the song of mourning is turned into a song of praise, as they later praise with hymns him to whom they had begun to offer the suffrages for the dead. He is truly proven to be endowed with exceptional holiness and to be a glorious martyr of the Lord, whom the angels anticipated with such honor and enrolled in the choir of the holy martyrs. This saint suffered for the Church, in the Church, and in a holy place, at a sacred time, and between the hands of priests and religious, so that the holiness of the one suffering and the cruelty of those persecuting might be shown. Furthermore, the Lord deigned to work many other miracles through His saint; by his merits, sight was restored to the blind, hearing to the deaf, the ability to walk to the lame, and life to the dead. Moreover, the water used to wash the cloths stained with his blood served as a healing for many. A certain lady from England desired to have eyes of different colors out of vanity and to increase her beauty; for this reason, she made a vow and visited the tomb of the blessed Thomas on foot. When she rose after prostrating herself in prayer, she found herself completely blinded. Immediately repentant, she began to ask the blessed Thomas to return her own eyes to her—not the different-colored ones—a request she was finally able to obtain only with great difficulty. — 4. A trickster once offered his master a box of plain water, claiming it was water from Saint Thomas. His master replied, "If you've never stolen from me, may Saint Thomas let you bring this water here; but if you're guilty of theft, may the water vanish at once." He agreed to this challenge, knowing that he had just filled the box with water. A marvelous thing. They opened the box immediately and found it empty, catching the servant in his lie and clearly proving him guilty of theft. A bird, trained to speak, began to cry out just as it had learned to do when a hawk was chasing it: "Saint Thomas, help me!" Immediately, the hawk fell down dead, and the bird escaped. A man whom Saint Thomas had loved dearly fell gravely ill, so he went to the saint's tomb and prayed for his health, receiving exactly what he asked for; but as he was returning, healed, he began to wonder if that healing might not actually be bad for his soul. He returned to the tomb and prayed that if his health wasn't good for his soul, the illness would return at once—and it immediately came back just as it had been before. As for those who killed him, divine vengeance raged against them so that some died miserably after tearing their own fingers to pieces with their teeth, others wasted away with rot, others were paralyzed, and others lost their minds.