Revd Susan Mobberley shares the personal pilgrimage she experienced in creating an icon of Thomas Becket.
Canterbury Cathedral, and Thomas Becket have long had associations for me, having been a cathedral guide during student days. Parties of schoolchildren were always fascinated to be shown ‘Becket’s ghost’ on a pillar in the crypt, as well as the site of the martyrdom itself. In those days a small pink tile marked the alleged spot where Becket’s brains were spilled out and audio headsets lined the martyrdom walls to enable visitors to listen to a dramatic re-enactment of the death of Becket by his assailants. The Pope’s visit in 1982 saw the martyrdom more tastefully refurbished with visitors instead having to content themselves with tangible signs of Becket in the ‘miracle’ windows as they made their way up the worn ‘Pilgrim steps’ to the Choir on their own particular pilgrimages. The steps had been worn down by countless pilgrims over the years going to the site of the opulent shrine which stood in the eastern end of the church until Henry VIII destroyed it.
As a student I too had made a pilgrimage to the Cathedral. Along with others we walked part of the traditional Pilgrim’s Way from Guildford to Canterbury during one Holy Week, arriving in Canterbury to be met by the Dean early on Easter morning. That memory was no doubt the motivation for wanting to join another such pilgrimage, walking from Southwark to Canterbury last May, originally part of a year of Becket commemorative events coinciding with the 850th anniversary of the martyrdom. Southwark, mentioned in Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ was one of the starting points for Canterbury pilgrims. However, Covid restrictions as well as unexpected health issues meant it was not to be. As I let go of my plans, and as most of the commemorative events were also cancelled, the strong sense came that I needed to paint Becket instead. The next few months became a different kind of pilgrimage, of personal prayer and prayer for the needs of our country in this difficult season.
Sens cathedral holds a vestment set known to have been owned by Becket on which the icon’s chasuble is modelled. Likewise the icon’s crozier references one preserved at Canterbury, known to belong to Hubert Walter, a successor of Becket. Surely there was at least a possibility that Becket himself may have used it some two dozen years earlier? The shrine in the icon’s top right hand corner references the digital reconstruction by York University indicating what Becket’s shrine may have looked like. History records Becket as a handsome man with fair skin, dark hair and aquiline nose. The imposing mosaic from Monreale Cathedral begun soon after Becket’s canonisation and marking the links between England and Sicily was the inspiration for Becket’s face. This same mosaic, one of the earliest known artistic depictions of Becket anywhere is clearly also the inspiration for the icon painted by Peter Murphy, now overlooking the original site of the shrine in the crypt at Canterbury.
However, interesting as these details are, the iconographer’s focus is not on creating a historical portrait, but to try to show those depicted with a sense of the eye of the Spirit. Icons aim to indicate something of the transfigured world which is also our destiny. Icons remind that there is a whole company of heaven, who dwelling in the nearer presence of God, pray with us and for us as we journey on to where the saints have gone before us. So the experience of painting Becket was not only getting to know about him, but getting to know him personally, his particular qualities and the love of Christ to which he bears witness. In itself this prayerful conversation over the months of painting was such a gift to me personally. It did not matter that at the outset the icon was not ‘for’ anyone or any place in particular. It came about by a prompt simply to make him known through the icon.
Then in the way these things happen, I was asked if I could lend the icon to Southwark Cathedral for a special service being held to commemorate the anniversary of Becket preaching his last sermon there, then the Priory of St Mary Overie, before his final journey on to Canterbury in 1170.
The service was a truly glorious occasion, combining an aural and visual feast of deeply prayerful liturgy. We were welcomed by the Dean and the Bishop of Southwark officiated. Also present was the Dean of St George’s RC Cathedral, Southwark who brought a relic of St Thomas which was placed on the altar in a magnificent Pugin reliquary. The Archbishop of Canterbury preached on the courage and example of Thomas speaking out, concluding “Simplicity, humility and boldness must be our virtues as a Church that is deeply Christian and that comes, as it did with Becket, from a deeply-rooted love for Jesus Christ.” You can read his sermon here.
Revd Georgie Bell writes about Susan’s calling to be an iconographer: When Susan and her husband Keith (both are ordained) come to London, they stay with me in Roupell Street –occasional visitors to St John’s. We trained together – in fact Susan and I share the distinction of being two of the first five women at our theological college. Susan’s calling to be an iconographer surprised her – she had no previous artistic training (and to be proficient takes about 10,000 hours!). God has used Susan’s gift to start the St Luke’s icon centre in Warwickshire. It is now a few years since St John’s people kindly gave hospitality to members of the St Luke’s group attending an icon show at ‘The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts’ in the City. Some of you will also know the χαίρετε (chairete) icon of SS Mary and Mary Magdalene in the Garden of Resurrection, which Susan did for me a couple of years ago. She is one of a growing number of iconographers in the western church who is helping to meet a new hunger for praying with icons and for enriching our worship with insights from eastern orthodox tradition
*In the Orthodox Christian tradition, icons are said to be written, not painted; making an icon is more a form of prayer than art, the iconographer’s hand is believed to be guided by God.
Now read about the British Museum exhibition on Thomas Becket here
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