Report: Becket's Bloodstained Tunic Returning to Canterbury

Archbishop Thomas Becket's bloodstained tunic will be returning from the Vatican to Canterbury, England, for the 850th anniversary of his brutal murder in 2020, The Guardian reported.

Becket was killed in Canterbury Cathedral in December 1170 after a dispute with King Henry II. After his murder, Becket was made a saint by Pope Alexander III and Canterbury Cathedral became a shrine before it was destroyed in 1538 by Henry VIII when he broke from Rome during the Reformation, according to the report.

Becket's tunic survived because it was given by Henry VII to the pope 50 years earlier, and was housed in Rome's Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

"The archives of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore show that the tunic has been kept there since 1485," procurator general of the Missionary Society of St Columban, Father Robert McCulloch, told The Guardian. "There is a theory that Henry VII gave the tunic of a great English saint and martyr to the then pope because he wanted to please him as he was trying to get him to canonize Henry VI. If Henry VI was made a saint, Henry VII thought this would put his House of Tudor, with its links to the Lancastrian Henry VI, in a good light. It's ironic that his son, Henry VIII, then broke with Rome and had Becket's shrine destroyed."

The Canterbury Cathedral has been revived and visited by tourists and is planning 850th anniversary ceremonies remembering Becket's death.

"We are at the planning stage for our 2020 commemoration of Becket," Canterbury Cathedral spokeswoman Jane Walker told The Guardian. "It's very exciting if the tunic comes from Rome."

Archbishop Becket's fatal rift with Henry II came over a battle of power between church and kingdom.

"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest," Henry II is famed to have said, per the report.

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