St Thomas at the English College in Rome

Abstract

Thomas of Canterbury has very particular associations for the the Venerable English College in Rome, the Roman Catholic Seminary originally founded in the sixteenth century in the properties of the medieval pilgrim hospice. The archbishop came to have physical, spiritual and political associations with the institution as a result of his exile from England and royally sanctioned murder, so much so that the English and Welsh national church in the papal city is now dedicated to him. In the context of the Protestant Reformation and the Dissolution of the Monasteries in Britain, students and exiled priests studying at the Roman college looked to Thomas's example of resistence to secular interference which was reinforced by means of relics and depictions of Thomas in a highly charged pictorial scheme in the College church.

Remembering Thomas Becket in Saint-Lô

“…Thomas's significance had diminished on the continent in the early modern period only to be powerfully reinvigorated in the wake of Henry VIII's abolition of the saint's cult in 1538 (Slocum 2019, pp. 170-92;Richardson 2020). In France, the Enlightenment and associated movements towards secular republicanism propelled a decline in religiosity and a particular…”

“…Thomas's significance had diminished on the continent in the early modern period only to be powerfully reinvigorated in the wake of Henry VIII's abolition of the saint's cult in 1538 (Slocum 2019, pp. 170-92;Richardson 2020). In France, the Enlightenment and associated movements towards secular republicanism propelled a decline in religiosity and a particular disaffection with figures like Saint Thomas, who had long been perceived not only as stalwart bastions of institutional Catholicism, but specifically of Catholic deference to papal authority.…”