Reclaiming Becket: London’s great saint needs a reboot

For a modern Becket, look to Archbishop Oscar Romero, saint and martyr, who was assassinated by the state in his own cathedral in 1980.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93scar_Romero

To be honest, I don't know what it would mean to rehabilitate a twelfth century Archbishop.

What kind of saint could he become?

Surely not a religious saint when religiosity is declining and sainthood is suspect. Not a secular saint either, for he doesn't have the marks of 21st century secular sainthood: lack of ego, public spirit, concern for justice etc.

The only option I can see: his resistance to state power and unwillingness to escape his fate brings him close to Socrates, so perhaps there's that route. If only he had a great prose stylist as a student.

Of the various Catholic halomakers I know (and I don't many, being neither a Catholic nor a saint), only St. Francis comes across as a straightforward candidate for contemporary sainthood.

Even the very highest levels of human achievement are historically conditioned and might appear to later generations as idolatry.

St. Stanisław of Kraków[0] is a similar figure.

[0] https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14246a.htm

I was suprised for this to pop up - Becket was such a great film.