Show Notes
In the mid-nineteenth century, a relic of the Bishop and Martyr, Saint Thomas Becket, a piece of his skull, was given to Northampton Cathedral by Monsignor George Talbot, a secretary to Pope Pius IX. He had received the relic from the bishop of Veroli, Bishop Mariano Venturi. In a letter written in period Italian, from Bishop Venturi to Mgr Talbot in 1852, Venturi says it is is a relic of the ‘glorious bishop and martyr Thomas Becket’. It also mentions the ‘cranium’ that the relic resembles, therefore leading to beliefs that this is part of the skull of St Thomas Becket. Veroli is in the Provence of Lazio, Italy and today is the diocese of Frosinone-Veroli-Ferentino.
This weekend, the Becket Festival is being celebrated in Northampton. The Papal Nuncio to Great Britain, Miguel Maury Buendia, is making a pastoral visit to the diocese. St Thomas Becket’s feast day is at the end of the year, however the festival is being held in the summer in order to coincide with the Feast of the Translation of the Relics of Thomas Becket on 7 July. This year it will also include the blessing of the St Thomas Centre, Northampton’s new diocesan centre.
The festival will conclude with the Becket Lecture in the St Thomas Centre. Dr Judith Champ will deliver the lecture titled, ‘The complicated saint: Thomas Becket and English Catholics’.
The Translation of the Relics of Thomas Becket refers to 7 July 1220, when due to both popular demand from pilgrims wishing to access the burial site of the Martyr and also a fire, the relics of Saint Thomas were moved to a more appropriate shrine in the main body of Canterbury Cathedral, where they were at the time.
So why Northampton? And how?
In this latest Tablet podcast, Fr Andrew Coy, private secretary to Bishop of Northampton David Oakley, is in conversation with Tablet assistant editor Ruth Gledhill in a bid to unravel the ‘martyr mystery’ of St Thomas Becket, his terrible murder at Canterbury and how he and his relics came to be associated with Northampton.
For more information about the weekend please click here
More from The Wise and the Wherefores
In this episode of ‘The Wise and the Wherefores’, Ruth Gledhill, assistant editor of The Tablet and Sister Liz Dodd CSJP talk to James Alison and his editor John Edwards about James’ new book, Beguiling Belonging, published by Paulist Press. Beguiling Belonging rethinks questions of catholicity, ecclesiology, and belonging through the lens of René Girard’s anthropology. The essays examine how Jesus’s life, death, andresurrection unmask humanity’s ‘scapegoat mechanism’ and demonstrate that, in Christ’s self-offering, this violent dynamic is undone. The result is an invitation for Christians to rediscover their identity, not as belonging to a sacred institution that draws boundaries around insiders and outsiders, but rather to a reconciling body that refuses to remain blind to its collective tendencies toward creating false unity at the expense of others.James Alison is a well-known Catholic priest andtheologian whose work engages the theology of René Girard and its implications for faith and culture. Widely published and translated, he isalso known for his long-standing pastoral and theological engagement with LGBT questions within the Catholic Church, marked by a commitment to truth, reconciliation, and charity John P. Edwards, PhD, is a pastoral theologian, spiritual companion, educator, and higher education leader whose work explores the ways relationship, desire, and belonging shape our experience of ourselves, one another, and the divine. He holds a PhD in systematic theology from Boston College and has written on theological anthropology, conversion, contemplative prayer, and the work of James Alison and René Girard. John teaches primarily in contextual and practical theology and has spent more than two decades accompanying students, ministers, and other seekers through theological reflection and vocational discernment. His formation through the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation deepened a contemplative practice grounded in attentive listening to the movement of the Spirit in felt, lived experience. He serves as Director of Residential Ministry at Villanova University and is a co-founder of Woodland Pacific, a nonprofit dedicated to cognitive diversity and equitable opportunity. The Tablet is currently offering five issues for just £5. Visit this link to find out more. On our website and in the weekly print magazie, content includes news, features, comment, analysis, books and arts reviews, spiritual meditations, puzzles, readers’ letters and online and in-person events and pilgrimages. You can also subscribe to our free, twice-weekly newsletter which is on Substack.
Ruth and Liz in this episode speak to Gemma Simmonds CJ about nun girl summer. They also discuss the tragedy in Nepal, and the Catholicism of Andy Burnham. Sister Liz Dodd was talking in the days running up to taking her final vows as a fully-professed sister in the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace. Sister Gemma has been talking and writing over the summer about the latest social media viral trend, nun girl summer. This includes an article in the latest print issue of The Tablet that you can read here and although it is paywalled, by signing up you can get some articles for free. https://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/nun-girl-summer-you-are-so-good-at-that/ We are now on Substack for free with our twice-weekly newsletters, and in these you can access our latest subscription issue, five issues for just £5. You can also find that offer here.
Sister Liz Dodd CSJP and writer Rhidian Brook both have Lent books out. Easter in Disguise by Liz and Notes on an Execution by Rhidian have both been picked up by parishes around the country to study and think about at Lent group gatherings. Ruth Gledhill is assistant editor of The Tablet, and her own parish is studying Rhidian’s book. Here, she talks to both authors about the enduring Lenten practices that make this time of year so fruitful for all those who are on a Christian journey.
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This is our first podcast of 2026 and we start by discussing Sister Liz’s Lent book, Easter in Disguise, published by Bloomsbury. There will be more on this in our next podcast as well, but basically, Liz believes there is more, lots more, to Lent than giving up chocolate! For the first time also, we have a guest and we hope that this will be a regular feature of The Wise and the Wherefores as we move forwards into our second season. Where did last year go so fast? So, in this week’s Tablet, our cover is by theologian, writer and Anglican ordinand Theo Hobson. Headlined ‘The dark night of liberalism’, Theo unpacks why the word ‘liberal’ has become associated with a demand for absolute personal autonomy and an unregulated economic free-for-all. Might Christian ideas be what is needed to create a space that brings freedom of conscience together with the common good? Read Theo’s feature here: https://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/the-dark-night-of-liberalism/ Subscribe to The Tablet https://www.thetablet.co.uk/subscribe/ Buy Easter in Disguise by Sister Liz Dodd CSJP, published by Bloomsbury, from The Tablet Bookshop. Discount available if you cite The Tablet, for the next two months. 020 7799 4064 or email [email protected].