The church exterior
Before entering the church, you will see the imposing west end exterior,
built of Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressing. In the frontal butress
is a fine seven-foot ancaster stone stone statue of St Thomas of Canterbury
flanked by two angels. The bell turret which surmounts the buttress which
contains one bell which, alas, is not rung until money is found for its
restoration.
On a wall to the right of the bell tower is a large stone relief depicting
Pope St Gregory the Great and an Anglian slave in the Roman forum, which
meeting inspired the Pope to send a Mission, led by St Augustine of Canterbury,
to the largely pagan English. The relief was blessed on Tuesday, 27th May,
1997, the Feast of St Augustine of Canterbury, by the Most Reverend Michael
G. Bowen, Archbishop of Southwark and Metropolitan, to mark the 1,400th
anniversary of that significant event.
The site of the church was in the middle age a chapel dedicated to St. Mary
Magdalen. The tower of the mediaeval church, St Mary Magdalen's Tower, still
stands in front of St Thomas' church
The Church interior
As you enter the church through the north-west porchway, you will see the
original 1875 early decorated Gothic style church in fron of you; the clerestory
windows (suggested by Edward Pugin, the son of the illustrious Victorian
architect, Augustus Welby Pugin), which provide the light for the nave; the
original high altar typical of the period at the east end. The composite
architecture of the building has changed considerably over the past forty
years, with structural changes in 1962/63. The little room on your immediate
right before you actually go into the nave has been inserted as a Quiet Room
for the comfort of parents with babies; the parents can hear and see everything,
but the cries of their infants are contained. Turn right you will see the
entrance to the sacristies. Before the 1963 reconstructions there were four
chapels here; one of them was the chapel of St Mary Magdalen, a dedication
commemmorating the mediaeval church of that name which, until its demolition
in 1870, stood on the site of the present church. The tower of the mediaeval
church, St Mary Magdalen's Tower, still stands in front of St Thomas'
church.
In the right-hand aisle in front of the sacristies are statues of the Sacred
Heart and Pope St Gregory the Great. Also in the same aisle is a mosaic depicting
St Augustine of Canterbury. This mosaic was erected and blessed by Archbishop
Bowen on 27th May, 1997 as part of the celebrations marking the 1,400th
anniversary of the arrival of St Augustine of Canterbury in 597 AD.
At the west end of this aisle you will see the pieta which was originally
in the chapel at Hales Place and was bought by Canon Sheppard (Parish Priest
1905 - 1942) for ten guineas (£10.50) when the house, which became St
Mary's College, was sold by the Jesuits in 1928.
The chapel at the south-west end of the aisle is the Martyrs' Chapel and
contains the shrine with the relics of St Thomas of Canterbury. The Martyrs'
Chapel The reliquary before 1953 contained two relics of our patron: a piece
of St Thomas' vestment and a piece of bone from his body. These came from
Gubbio in Umbria, Italy, and were presented to St Thomas' church by Mary
Hales over one hundred years ago. The pedigree of the relics is well
authenticated. On Tuesday, 7th July, 1220, the body of St Thomas, which had
been kept in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral since the saint's martyrdom
on Tuesday, 29th December, 1170, was translated to an imposing new shrine
behind the high altar of the cathedral where it remained until its complete
destruction by King Henry VIII in 1538. On the occasion of the Translation
in 1220, some Cardinals from Rome were present as witnesses, and they took
the opportunity of removing some small relics which accompanied them back
to Italy. Two of these relics were presented to St Thomas' in the 19th century,
and a third, a piece of the saint's finger, in 1953 by the Prior of Chevetogne,
Father Thomas Becquet, a colateral descendant of the martyred archbishop.
Two statues on plinths each side of the altar, above which is the reliqary
containing the three relics of St Thomas, depict St John Fisher, Cardinal
Bishop of Rochester, and St Thomas More, both of whom suffered for denying
Henry VIII's claim to be Head of the Church in England, and were martyred
in July 1535. Both were canonised exactly four hundred years later in 1935.
Of the two stained-glass windows, one shows the martyrdom of St Thomas and
the other Pope St Gregory the Great with slave children in the Roman Forum.
The other light in this window depicts St Augustine of Canterbury, and, below,
the scene with him preaching to King Ethelbert. To the left of the windows
in a reliquary set in the wall are some of the Mass vestments which belonged
to Archbishop Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, El Salvador, who
was murdered whilst celebrating Mass in 1980. These vestments were presented
to St Thomas' church in 1997 in appreciation of the gift of a relic of St
Thomas of Canterbury (given to St Thomas' church in 1995 and presented to
San Salvador Cathedral in 1996). The cast statue on the west wall of the
Martyrs' Chapel is of St John Stone, the Augustinian Friar, who spoke out
for the Pope's supremacy in the Church against Henry VIII's usurpation of
it. True to his Catholic beliefs, he was hanged, drawn and quartered in Dane
John in 1539 and was canonised as a martyr in 1970. The statue was made by
Mother Concordia of Minster Abbey, Thanet, Kent.
The Chapel of St Joseph Next to the Martyrs' Chapel is the Chapel of St Joseph.
Although the altar has been removed, there is another fine cast statue on
the wall, also by Mother Concordia. She has depicted St Joseph as Patron
of the Universal Church, holding in his arms a replica of St Peter's Basilica
in Rome.
As you walk across the centre of the nave you will see the sanctuary and
you will get the finest all-round view of the building as a whole. The High
alter Looking eastward at the original ornate high altar, you will see that
the front of the altar has three panels; the centre one containing an Agnus
Dei in stone, flanked by two adoring angels with thuribles. The gradine is
more elaborately carved, and the reredos in which it terminates has two panels
in alto relievo, one showing the martyrdom of St Thomas, and the other King
Henry II doing public penance for being the cause of Becket's murder. He
received absolution from the pope, but part of his penance was to take his
physical punishment by demeaning himself and receiving a whipping from each
member of the community of the Priory of Christchurch. Stripped of his royal
robes at St Dunstan's Church outside Westgate (he had walked from Harbledown),
he walked the “holy mile” barefoot through the city to the tomb
of St Thomas in Canterbury Cathedral. The tabernacle, rising in front of
the reredos into a tapering pinnacle, is made of albaster and surrounded
by the usual crockets and finials. Four marble columns support the canopy.
The Rose window Above the altar is a double rose window with floriated tracery
worked in under a plain gothic arch. Although the window was uncoloured when
the church was opened in 1875, there were several benefactors who contributed
the stained-glass. Despite this disparity, the unity of the window, both
in style and theme, make it one of the outstanding artistic contributions
to the building. The central roundel represents the pie pelicane (the holy
pelican which, in the Middle Ages, symbolised Christ, the Redeemer, who feeds
us with His own Body and Blood - cf the hymn Adoro te devote by St Thomas
Aquinas). The theme of the windows is the life of St Thomas. From the top
right segment: The Baptism of Thomas (“God loveth the Giver” reads
the inscription), St. Thomas attendance at Mass, His teaching in Archbishop
Theobald's household, Hhis chancellorship, The seventh segment when the knight,
having murdered him, is escaping (“Beatus est magis dare quam
acceptere” says the inscription, echoing his Baptism). The last medallion
shows Thomas' reception into heaven. In the six point light in the roundel
at the apex of the window is a representation of Christ in Glory. The original
Victorian High Altar is no longer used for the celebration of Mass. In the
1980s the interior of the church was dramatically altered to accommodate
the liturgical changes ushered in by the Second Vatican Council. A new octagonal
altar in Lepine limestone , designed by Mr Daniel Rikh, is now used for all
celebrations. The Mass altar is supported by eight pillars whose shafts are
of Italian green marble, following the Early English style of the pillars
of the nave of the church.
The Baptismal font, built in 1865 by George Horan, a local stonemason, was
placed in its present position in the sanctuary in the 1980s.
The Lady Altar Immediately to the left of the sanctuary and at the end of
the north aisle is the Lady Chapel. The Altar is dedicated to Our Lady of
Sorrows, and you will see the pieta (similar to the one brought from Hales
Place) depicted in the central panel of the altar. The altar was given by
Eva Minna Billington in 1905 in memory of her mother. Our Lady and Child
are flanked by St Constance (the name of Miss Billington's mother) and St
George. The designer of the Lady Altar was A. E. Purdie who had created the
high altar forty years earlier.
The Canterbury Saints Chapel In 1963, the then Parish Priest, Canon Charles
de Laubenque, faced with a growing congregation, built a large extension
on the north side of the church, now known as the Canterbury Saints Chapel.
The new chapel has a striking mural The Canterbury Saints painted by Miss
Helen Grunwald. (see the description of the mural ). As you leave the church
you will see the organ loft at the west end which contains a two manual and
pedal organ, rebuilt in 1990 by Brownes of Ash. The Stations of the Cross
on the north and south walls were originally in Westminster Cathedral before
the outstanding sculptures of Eric Gill replaced them. They were given to
St Thomas' Church by Cardinal Bourne, Archbishop of Westminster, who had
formerly been Bishop of Southwark.
As you leave the church it is worth examining the outside plaque on the right
of the main door. This is a reproduction of a bas-relief of St Thomas in
Godmersham Church. The original, in purbeck marble, is the earliest English
representation in sculpture of St Thomas of Canterbury, dating, as it does,
before 1200.