relics housed in canterbury
-St. Thomas Becket
how did they get to canterbury
*The relic of St. Thomas Becket is in Canterbury Cathedral because he was murdered there. Thomas Becket was murdered in the north- west transept. Thomas knew that the king's knights were coming to kill him and he just stayed in the chapel praying. King Henry the II never gave direct orders to his knights to go and kill Thomas Becket. The king's knights miss interpreted King Henry II when he said "Who will rid me of this priest?". He was just frustrated with Thomas Becket because he used to be the king's friend and the king elected him to be Archbishop of Canterbury so he could fill in the gap between church and state. It didn't work out because Thomas Becket changed and he started turning on King Henry II. The nights went into Canterbury Cathedral and found Thomas Becket in a small chapel and there they stabbed him to death. He was killed on December 29, 1170. When he was found there was blood everywhere, the others collected it and is the blood that they would put in the pins for the pilgrims. His relic was located in the crypt until a fire in 1174 damaged the choir. This was a good thing because now they could move the relic to a location more suitable for the amount of pilgrims that wanted to and had been visiting it. So many pilgrims have visited Thomas Becket that the stairs are worn out in some places from people going on their knees.