Source: Partial public-domain source packet for St. Thomas Becket and the Canterbury miracle tradition. Main wording follows older public-domain Golden Legend/Caxton material and standard public-domain summaries of Edward Grim's eyewitness account and Canterbury miracle collections. No complete public-domain miracle collection has been attached.
Coverage: Partial. Murder scene and shrine-miracle framing only.

St. Thomas Becket

And anon the knights smote him, and one of them smote off the crown of his head, and another brake the point of his sword upon the pavement.

Edward Grim, who stood near the archbishop during the attack, was wounded in the arm while trying to shield him from the swords.

The blood and brains were gathered by the monks, and Canterbury quickly became a place of pilgrimage.

The water of St. Thomas, mixed with a trace of the martyr's blood, was carried away by pilgrims and credited in miracle stories with cures of fever, blindness, paralysis, wounds, and madness.

Benedict of Peterborough and William of Canterbury collected hundreds of miracle claims at the shrine, preserving names, places, symptoms, vows, relapses, and recoveries in unusually concrete medical detail.