View of the Corona, Canterbury Cathedral                                                    Virgin of Guadalupe

Both the shrines of Thomas Becket and the Virgin of Guadalupe draw pilgrims who claim the occurrence of miraculous events in their presence. Thomas Becket became a local martyr-saint when Henry II’s soldiers killed him in response to his resistance to the king’s attempts to control the Church. The Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to a poor, native peasant in Mexico upon whose mantel soon appeared a miraculous image of her. Becket was seen as a champion of the people against the dominating ruler and the Virgin seemed to favor a Nahua Indian over the ruling Spaniards, thus increasing the subject people’s acceptance of European Christianity.