Well, a relic of him does: Reuters, via Religion News Service, reports:
A fragment of bone belonging to the murdered archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, has returned to England from Hungary for the first time in 800 years.
The relic is believed to be from the arm of Becket, slain at the altar of Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, after his relationship with medieval English King Henry II soured when he stood up for the church against the monarchy.
“The relic is to be the centrepiece of a week-long pilgrimage which finishes in Canterbury during the weekend of May 28 and 29,” authorities said in a statement on the Cathedral website.
From Kentonline.com:
It is not known how the bone arrived in Hungary but relics were taken in 1220 when his body was moved from a tomb to a shrine in Canterbury Cathedral.
Records from Esztergom Cathedral in 1528 show part of his arm was kept there in a gold plated silver container.
King Henry VIII ordered the destruction of the rest of Becket’s bones and the shrine when he dissolved the monasteries in 1538.
The bone fragment may have been removed when Becket was reburied in the cathedral in 1220; it has been residing in Hungary, and there has taken on a second political life as a symbol of the Hungarians’ resistance to Communism. Its itinerary includes the British Parliament, Cheapside (Becket’s birthplace), Westminster Cathedral and Canterbury Cathedral (where Becket died in 1170).
From Anglican News:
That relic from Esztergom has today joined relics from St Magnus the Martyr and St Thomas of Canterbury churches in London, St Thomas Church in Canterbury, and Stonyhurst Jesuit estate in Lancashire, at Westminster Cathedral – the leading Roman Catholic Church in London – for what has been termed Becket Week.
After Tuesday:
The bones will then be on display for most of the week at St Margaret’s Church – the parish church of the Houses of Parliament, adjacent to Westminster Abbey and a range of services and special events will take place. On Friday they will be taken to Rochester in Kent, ahead of a service attended by Bishop László Kiss-Rigó of Szeged-Csanád; the Mayor of Esztergom, , Etelka Romanek; and the Hungarian foreign minister István Mikola.
On Saturday, pilgrims will assemble at at St Michael’s Church in Harbledown, just outside Canterbury, ahead of a walk to Canterbury Cathedral where a special “welcome service” will be held in the presence of religious and civil leaders.
And on Sunday afternoon, Becket Week will conclude with a Catholic Mass in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral and an open air concern in the cathedral precincts.
The site of Becket’s martyrdom continues to draw pilgrims and is where, in 1982, Pope John Paul II and Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie knelt and prayed together during the first visit of a Pope to the United Kingdom.
Image from Hungarian government, via Anglican News