Today is the feast day of St Thomas Becket and appropriately enough, a reader of Canterbury Tales named Jessica writes with a question:

I deeply appreciate this blog and have become an avid follower! I recently stumbled upon this post after often wondering why you choose the name Canterbury Tales, because I always thought surely it can’t be after Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales??? I am a convert to the faith and also have it against me that grew up in a public school (and a low performing one at that).  

My memory of Canterbury Tales almost 15 years ago now was that the overall message we took away was that based on the large number of characters and their often silly stories that Chaucer was suggesting it’s not possible to arrive at any definite truth or reality about the Church. That’s gotta be wrong or you wouldn’t call your Traditional Catholic blog Canterbury Tales… 

Thanks again for the great information on this blog!

So why is the blog called Canterbury Tales?

It’s called “Canterbury Tales” for a number of reasons.

It’s called Canterbury Tales because its a blog about pilgrimage. As you know Canterbury Tales by Chaucer is a collection of stories told by pilgrims traveling to the relics of Saint Thomas Becket – a martyr of fidelity to the Pope against the tyranny of the English King Henry II.

My wife and I have a devotion to Saint Thomas Becket as a defender of the Papacy and the Catholic Faith. One of our sons is named “Becket” after the great martyr.

Also, I’m a convert from Anglicanism. The irony is that Canterbury is still the “capital” of Anglicanism. Yet Canterbury is only significant because it was the first English diocese recognized by Rome (by St Gregory the Great to be specific). Canterbury also has significance because of the relics of Becket. The glory of Anglicanism (Canterbury) is only glorious because of the glory of its true Mother (Rome).

ad Jesum per Mariam,

Taylor

PS: I’m curious as to whether there are there any readers out there who have read this blog from way back in 2003. It used to be called “Ecclesia Anglicana.” If so please leave a comment. It was renamed “Canterbury Tales” in 2006 when I became Roman Catholic.

To learn about how I came to realize how important Rome is for Christianity and why I left Anglicanism to become a Roman Catholic, please see my brand-new book: The Eternal City: Rome & the Origins of Catholicism: