Rachel Koopmans
York University
Abstract for Flash Session, “Canterbury Cathedral’s Miracle Windows.”
Depicting the miracles of Thomas Becket in the vivid colors and animated figures of early
Gothic stained glass, the early thirteenth-century “miracle windows” surrounding Thomas
Becket’s shrine in Canterbury Cathedral stand at the confluence of many cultural currents of
High Medieval England: the import of ideas, architectural innovations and glaziers from France;
the intense interest in remembering and recording miracle stories; a striking new attention to lay
audiences and lay religious experience among the religious elite; and, of course, the celebration
of the cult of the most famous saint and central political figure of the period: Thomas Becket, the
archbishop whose dispute with Henry II and slaughter in Canterbury Cathedral were known far
beyond the borders of England. This flash session will focus on the glass panels telling the story
of Eilward of Westoning, a castrated and blinded beggar whose healing became the most famous
miracle of Becket’s early cult.