I have a picture of a shrine with a man on his back with hands together as if in prayer. It was taken in the basement and I believe it held a real body within the statue of the man. Can you tell me who this is/what it is about?

Thanks. I'm using this in an English class I'm teaching.

http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/history/history.htm seems to indicate your photo can't be of Thomas Becket's shrine, or his tomb, as they was destroyed on the orders of Henry Vlll in 1538. Nothing remains of them, certainly not an effigy which once contained a body; the site is marked by a pink granite stone and a candle.

The type of effigy you describe is common in English churches and cathedrals, both in the crypt (your 'basement') and the main part of the church. Bodies were not placed within the effigy, but beneath them. Hands crossed across chest, or in prayer, are both common. Crossed legs, on effigies of early Medieval knights, meant death in battle. Ornamentation on such tombs could include elements of the knight's coat of arms (e.g. the Warwick bear), and/or religious elements and symbols. Some early tombs are two-tier, with an effigy of the person (most often male) above and a cadaver/skeleton effigy below, showing how the body decays and thus stressing the importance of the soul.

You could email me the photo (if it's scannable) in case there are any other clues, but I suspect it will remain unidentifiable. Certainly not Becket anyway. Sorry!

Oh....just seen it on your homepage (I think). Definitely not Thomas, top decoration of recess is twiddly mid-Medieval architecture (14th/15th century, maybe bit later) but tomb itself looks much later to me. Not a knight (no armour) and not a royal (no crown). Probably not a top cleric either (no mitre).