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| Exterior view of the chapel |
Thomas Becket (London, 21 December 1118 - Canterbury, 29 December 1170) was an English ecclesiastic, chancellor of England with Henry II in 1154 and archbishop of Canterbury and primate of the English church in 1162. He opposed -is to the king's intentions to limit ecclesiastical privileges and was killed (probably by order of the sovereign) in 1170. In 1173 he was proclaimed a saint and martyr by Alexander III; he is revered as St. Thomas Becket, Thomas of Canterbury or Thomas Canturienc
The spread of his cult was rapid and spread throughout Europe. Outside England, there are churches dedicated to the holy martyr and artistic representations in Palermo (1170-1180) or Soria (the kings of Sicily and Castile married two daughters of Henry II, who brought the cult of Becket there). ), or in Santa Maria de Terrassa, the frescoes of an apse of which, dated to 1180, are the pictorial cycle on the oldest saint preserved outside England. They show the consecration, death and burial of the bishop, very faithful to the narration of the witnesses of the fact. We add the Vallès Oriental to the list.
It has a rectangular floor plan and is six meters wide by ten meters long, with walls one meter thick, five external buttresses, with the remains of some ornaments on the walls. Part of the roof is demolished and the apse is quartered. The image of the saint was moved in 1771 to the chapel that was built in the farmhouse of Prat de Dalt.
It is surprising the importance of the cult of Thomas Becket in Catalonia in the Middle Ages, as there are murals of his murder in the church of Santa Maria de Terrassa and there is an altar dedicated to the English martyr, in the same cathedral of Barcelona.
The reasons for this cult are still unknown.
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| Image of the Saint the chapel of the Prat de Dalt |
