ABSTRACT
During the second half of the 12th century, Augustinian houses attached to the congregation of Saint-Ruf at Avignon held a significant number of manuscripts (Vitae, Passio and Miracula) and liturgical texts that refer to the sainted archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. This important corpus demonstrates that the cult of Becket spread quickly through the congregation of Saint-Ruf. The means whereby devotion to Becket was disseminated around the Mediterranean more generally has yet to be determined satisfactorily – and it may be that there were a number of different agencies. This paper examines one particular example, and argues that the presence of an Anglo-Norman canon – Arveus or Harveus (Harvey) – recently identified as having been at Terrassa, could have been the driving force behind Romanesque paintings depicting the martyrdom of Thomas Becket in the church of Sta Maria at Terrassa, and therefore of the adoption of the cult of Becket in at least one Augustinian house. Harvey played an important role in the house of canons regular of Terrassa, in as much as he was a scribe and signed documents during the second half of the 12th century.
