When you go to a Catholic college and live in dorms named after religious icons, archbishops and other religious figures, you tend to forget that there is a meaning and a story behind the name. I had come to associate names like Becket and Augustine with parties, dorm life and geography, but certainly not religious life or history. Or maybe that's just me. Jason certainly pays more attention than I, so was not as blown away by Canterbury as I was. Notwithstanding, we were both incredibly smitten. Maybe it was the sunny day, our thoughtful nature, a beautiful train ride through Kent...whatever it was, we were hooked. In 1904, Virginia Woolf said, "there is no lovelier place in the world...and I have seen Venice too." Maybe, maybe not. But there's just something about Canterbury. Apparently Geoffrey Chaucer thought so as well. He wrote a book about the place you might have heard of -- The Canterbury Tales.
Saturday, 6 January 2007
And so the love affair begins. (Canterbury)
Just a plain side street in Canterbury. Brilliant. Even the nothing streets were lovely!The Cathedral...(Canterbury)
The Cathedral is so massive that it is nearly impossible to get in one photograph with our little camera. So instead...I took a picture of Jason! 
The door to the Cathedral. The Archbishop of Canterbury remains the highest religious position in England.
Inside the Cathedral. By now, however, you already likely know what the inside looks like. Big, beautiful, ornate and full of interesting monuments and things to look at!
A Crypt for a Martyr (Canterbury)
This monument was the highlight of the trip for me. And it requires a little story. Becket and King Henry II had a major falling out over how the church should be run. (Its actually quite a bit more than that, and spanned decades with Becket fleeing to France once!) For the purposes of this story, just know it was serious. They were like father and son when they were younger, but because of this disagreement, the King called for Becket's murder. And here's the story:"The king's exact words have been lost to history but his outrage inspired four knights to sail to England to rid the realm of this annoying prelate. They arrived at Canterbury during the afternoon of December 29 and immediately searched for the Archbishop. Becket fled to the Cathedral where a service was in progress. The knights found him at the altar, drew their swords and began hacking at their victim finally splitting his skull.
The death of Becket unnerved the king. The knights who did the deed to curry the king's favor, fell into disgrace. Several miracles were said to occur at the tomb of the martyr and he was soon canonized. Hordes of pilgrims transformed Canterbury Cathedral into a shrine. Four years later, in an act of penance, the king donned a sack-cloth walking barefoot through the streets of Canterbury while eighty monks flogged him with branches. Henry capped his atonement by spending the night in the martyr's crypt. St. Thomas continued as a popular cultist figure for the remainder of the Middle Ages. "
See? An incredible tale.
The top of the monument...representing the swords that killed Becket.
St. Augustine's Abbey and the Return of Explorer Meghan (Canterbury)
Ahhhh...my favourite! Ruins! The Abbey was founded by St. Augustine in 597 AD. Interesting, I lived in Augustine Hall for a bit my freshman year at college! 
Explorer Meghan returns!
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