St Thomas the Martyr's Church, Oxford

St Thomas the Martyr's Church, Oxford
The south wall of the church
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Churchmanship	Anglo-Catholic
History
Founded	12th century
Dedication	Thomas Becket
Administration
Diocese	Oxford
Province	Canterbury

St Thomas the Martyr's is a Church of England parish church of the Anglo-Catholic tradition, in Oxford, England, near Oxford railway station in Osney. It is located between Becket Street to the west and Hollybush Row to the east, with St Thomas Street opposite.

The church was founded in the 12th century, dedicated to St Thomas Becket. The building still retains some of its original architecture, although substantial expansions and repairs have been made, particularly in the 17th century (under the curacy of Robert Burton) and in the 19th century.

The church played a significant role in the early stages of the Oxford Movement, being the site of daily services as well as such ritualist practices as altar candles and the wearing of Eucharistic vestments. The leaders of the Movement preached at the church, and the early Tractarians were closely associated with St Thomas's.

It has traditionally been held in Osney that the church was founded in the reign of Stephen, but this is unlikely to be true, as Thomas Becket was not martyred until some fifteen years after Stephen's death. It is known that in the 1180s, the site was granted to the canons of the nearby Osney Abbey, and a chapel was erected on the site around 1190. From the mid-13th century the Osney area was referred to as the parish of St Thomas', but it remained nominally a chapel of the abbey until the dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, when it was placed under Christ Church, Oxford. Christ Church treated it as a conventional parish church with a curate, and from the mid-19th century the incumbent was styled a vicar.