A relic of St Thomas Becket arrived in England from Hungary on Monday for a week-long pilgrimage. The relic, believed to be a fragment of bone from St Thomas’s elbow, usually resides at Hungary’s mother church, Esztergom Cathedral. It is thought to be the first time the relic has returned to England for around 800 years. On Monday Cardinal Vincent Nichols concelebrated Mass with Hungarian Cardinal Péter Erdő at Westminster Cathedral. The relic was to be displayed at Westminster Abbey and St Magnus the Martyr church in London. Today it was due to be taken to Rochester Cathedral and tomorrow to Canterbury, where it is expected to process through the city before being welcomed with a service at the cathedral. On Sunday a Mass will be celebrated in the cathedral’s western crypt in the presence of the relic. Cardinal Nichols said the return of the relic helped to “solidify that growing sharing of life that takes place between Christian churches”. “It reminds all Christians that there comes a point where their loyalty to Christ becomes the overriding loyalty of their lives, and they might have to pay a final price,” the cardinal said. St Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 after a disagreement with King Henry II. The shrine at Canterbury, which contained most of St Thomas’s remains, was destroyed at the time of Henry VIII when the veneration of saints was condemned.