Tales from Canterbury

Part of Canterbury Cathedral exterior
When he was sent to convert Britain with 40 Benedictine Monks in 595 AD St Augustine of Canterbury was so afraid that he turned tail back to Rome and had to be re-sent by Pope Gregory.   The reluctant arrived in 596 beginning a legacy, centred on Canterbury, that cemented Britain as a Christian land for the next 1500 years.

 Nearly 800 years later The Canterbury Tales, written by Chaucer as 24 stories, tells the tales of some 30 pilgrims walking from Southwark to Canterbury on a pilgrimage to the shrine of St Thomas Becket.

Augustine,  Beckett are Chaucer the fascinating central characters in the story of the city of Canterbury, originally a Roman town, to which we traveled today. The bustling streets of this compact university city were full of establishments (pubs and businesses) hundreds of years old that have served visitors and pilgrims over the centuries.   On our little pilgrimage we felt the blessings of all those who journeyed here before and inspired by the courage of the reluctant Augustine and the integrity of St Thomas.

Ruins of Augustine's Abbey
The vast ruins of Augustine's Abbey revealed that the Normans did not rate Anglo- Saxon churches so in 1071 demolished the original Abbey and built a new one carefully transferring the bones of St Augustine under the new Altar.  The complex was dismantled or re-purposed at the command of Henry VIII from 1538 after splitting from the Roman Church.  During this period the tomb of St Augustine was desecrated and his remains scattered.  
Example of 2 Roman arches and a gothic style arch (rhs).
Canterbury has Roman/Norman and Gothic styles

Nearby,
within the city walls the massive and majestic Canterbury Cathedral had been a site of pilgrimage since 1170.  There are so many chapels and  sections of this vast Cathedral and it is too large for one external camera shot. The Archbishop, Thomas Beckett as murdered in the Cathedral by the knights of Henry II in 1170, an act which Henry regretted,  but which raised Thomas to sainthood and ensured the prosperity of Canterbury for centuries to come.

Candle at Shrine of St Thomas Becket
Daggers point to spot where Thomas Becket murdered 
At the time of dissolution of Catholic monasteries in 1538 Henry VIII  had St Thomas's grave  destroyed and his remains scattered because he was a talisman of defiance against the King.  Today he is venerated by Anglicans and Catholics and his shrine in the Trinity Chapel has a burning candle that is never extinguished.



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