Plans are underway to exhume and enshrine the head of Sir Thomas More ahead of the 500th anniversary of his death.
More is the Catholic martyr who was beheaded in 1535 for opposing Henry VIII’s break from Rome,
St Dunstan’s Church in Canterbury, where More’s head has rested in a family vault since 1578, hopes to conserve the relic and display it in a shrine.
More’s daughter, Margaret Roper, famously rescued his head after it was displayed on a spike on London Bridge, keeping it preserved in spices until it was buried with her.
A statement from St Dunstan’s said they aim “to exhume and conserve what remains of the relic” and invite ideas for how best to honour the saint, who was declared a martyr by the Vatican in 1935.
Permission will be needed from the church courts before any work goes ahead.