New Evidence Leads to Digital Reconstruction of Key Medieval Shrine

(CN) — The most important pilgrimage destination in medieval England has come back to life — albeit in digital form.

Visited for hundreds of years by pilgrims seeking miraculous healing, the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket has been digitally reconstructed based on expert analysis. The shrine was destroyed in 1538 at Canterbury Cathedral, one of thousands of Catholic monuments razed during the English Reformation.

Becket was one of the most important figures in medieval Europe. The hugely influential former archbishop of Canterbury and patron saint of London is believed to have died as a martyr, murdered by the knights of King Henry II in 1170 following years of bad blood between Becket and the king. Following his death, a memorial of “unparalleled splendor” was erected within the Trinity Chapel at Canterbury, but its appearance has long been debated by historians.

Released on the 800^th anniversary of the creation of the shrine, the CGI reconstruction uses fresh evidence to show how it would have likely appeared in the 16^th century. The findings, published in a special volume of the Journal of the British Archaeological Association, describe how the video digitalization establishes the most accurate recreation of the shrine to date.

“Our CGI reconstruction uses all currently available evidence including eyewitness accounts, theories from past historians for potential usage of the shrine, date of construction, materials used, specific features, accessibility and location with the church, similar examples elsewhere, as well as those who created it, to reconstruct how the shrine could have looked," said Dr. John Jenkins, historical researcher on the reconstruction team, in a statement.

The model is based upon how the shrine would have looked in 1408 when the cult at Canterbury was visited by up to 100,000 pilgrims a year. The reconstruction argues that the shrine was created much earlier, between 1180 and 1220, and would have likely taken more than 30 years to build and ornament.

"We propose the shrine was a collaborative effort, with the marble base initiated and largely finished by William the Englishman and the vast expensive golden feretory brought to completion only under Elias of Dereham and Walter of Colchester almost four decades later," said Jenkins, who works for the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture at the University of York.

The team's model includes other features, such as a "major finding" of iron grilles (not featured in previous reconstructions) that enclosed the shrine, and "would serve to enhance a sense of mystery" for visitors to the candlelit shrine. Offerings in thanks for miraculous cures were attached to the grilles so that the shrine would be seen "through a curtain of proof of Thomas's power to respond to prayer."

The team's design is the first to be based upon surviving fragments of the shrine discovered in and around Canterbury Cathedral since the 19th century. While historians have debated the source of these fragments, "the trefoil and stiff-leaf decoration on some of the fragments stylistically indicates a common origin, and they are very close in type and quality to the carved capitals of the Trinity Chapel," Jenkins said.

"Within the cathedral this marble is only found in the Trinity Chapel, which surely indicates that these fragments come from St. Thomas' shrine rather than any others."

The free reconstruction video, which forms part of a wider three-year AHRC-funded “Pilgrimage and England's Cathedrals: Past and Present” project, will be used as a heritage interpretation tool to help visitors to Canterbury share the experience of medieval pilgrims.

The videos reconstruct the four main sites associated with Becket: the main shrine; his head shrine in the Corona Chapel; the site of his martyrdom; and his original tomb. Located in Trinity Chapel at Canterbury Cathedral, the main shrine shows Becket’s golden casket resting on a marble base. The casket was said by pilgrims to be one of the most richly decorated and bejeweled shrines in Europe.

Jenkins and his team also hope it functions as a tool for researchers to study the look, feel and nature of the holy site.

“The murder of Thomas Becket stunned the whole of Christendom,” Jenkins notes. “Within 10 years of his death, over 700 healing miracles had been recorded at his tomb."

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