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Thomas Becket, also known as St. Thomas of Canterbury, was such a prominent saint in the late Middle Ages that the date of his martyrdom—December 29, 1170—was annually commemorated all over Europe with special prayers and lessons, and often with special music as well. On July 7, 1220, almost fifty years after Thomas’s death, his body was solemnly translated from its original resting place, the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, to the famous shrine in the cathedral proper; and the anniversary of the translation became a second annual feast day in his honor, observed with special prayers and lessons of its own almost everywhere in England and in some continental churches as well. Most of these liturgical texts about Thomas and other saints were incorporated into the daily office, which was celebrated by members of the clergy and monastic orders, rather than into the Mass, which was intended for Christians at large; so they are found in breviaries and antiphonals rather than missals and books of hours. But their influence inevitably extended well beyond the clergy, since they helped to determine which ideas about a given saint would be incorporated into sermons, vernacular literature, and works of visual art.
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