The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-29
THE ROMANCE OF
 THOMAS A BECKETT

|
 l England will soon celebrate the l 8O0th anniversary of the birth of
 Thomas a Beckett the most celebrated
 Roman Catholic prelate in English annals, but the exact date of the com memoration has not yet been decided. l Authorities differ as to the year in which Beckett was born, some giving the date as Dec. 21, 111H, others as HIS, and still others as 1119. The consensus of opinion now favors the first named date. The great Saxon
 hero, priest and martyr was as-
 sassinated on Dec. 29, 1170, just TAG years ago today.
 The approaching anniversary has revived the old legend about the | romance of the parents of the great archbishop. This legend, at one time dismissed as imaginary, is now accepted by many historians as hav- ing a firm foundation of fact. It is related that Gilbert, the father of a Becket, had in his.youth accompanied a crusade to the Holy Land. While in Syria he was taken prisoner by a Saracen of high rank, and was con- fined in the dungeon of a castle. The young Eng1ishman's personal attrac- tions and miserable condition aroused 1.-the pity of his captor's daughter, and she soon became violently enamored of him, and visited him frequently in his dungeon. The fair MOhammedan at length contrived to effect his libera- ton, first exacting promise from Gilbert that as soon as he had reach ed his own land he should send for and marry her. @
 Evidently there was not a great deal of chivalry or gratitude in the heart of Gilbert Beckett, for he per mitted the years to pass without even sending a message to the love-lorn
 maiden who was awaiting his coming by the sea-banks of the Tyre. With a love and faith unbounded, the Saracen maiden at length decided to seek the distant England which was
 the home of her lover, and, after long wonderings and many vicissitudes. she
 at length accomplished this perilous enterprise. Arrived in England, she
 made her way to London. She knew
 but two words of any. European lan-
 guage, the names of her lover and of
 the city where he dwelt, and it was
 by repetition of these words, Gilbert" and London and by the display of
 her tears, her beauty, her jewels and
 her gold, that she finally attained her
 goal.
 Arrived in London, she set about
 the difficult task of searching out her
 lover, and, fortune favoring her, she
 found him. He had not married, and,
 to his eternal credit, he was willing
 to reward the fair Syrian's undoubt-
 ing trust by taking her to his home and heart. Previous to the marriage
 taking place, she nenounced Moham-
 mechanism and professed her conver-
 sion to Christianity, and was baptized
 with great solemnity in St. Paups
 Cathedral, six bishops assisting at the
 ceremony. f6
 The only child of this marriage was
 Thomas a Beckett. In after years this
 story was subjected to meny fanciful
 embellishments. Scores of ballads
 were written about it. In one of these,
 long a favorite song ini Scotland, the heroine was given the remarkable
 name of Susie Pye! This version has the fair young Saracen following her faithless lover to Scotland, where she surprised him just as he was on the
 point of marrying another lady. The hero then calmly changes brides. dis
 misses the Scotch girl, weds the Sara
 cen, and lives happy ever after It
 may have been such additions and embellishments caused some modern biographers of Beckett to dismiss the whole tale as fiction, but there is evil dently good reason to believe that the immortal Archbishop was really the son of a Saxon and a Syrian, and that the main facts of the romance as above outlined cannot be successfully cOntradicted. H