Category:Holy Grail (subject)

BACK TO THE ARTIFACTS--INDEX

According to Christian traditions, the Holy Grail is the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers.

Overview

The legend of the Holy Grail first came together in the form of written romances, deriving perhaps from some pre-Christian Celtic folklore hints, in the later 12th and early 13th centuries. The connection of Joseph of Arimathea with the Grail legend dates from Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie (late 12th century) in which Joseph receives the Grail from an apparition of Jesus and sends it with his followers to Great Britain. The quest for the Holy Grail made up an important segment of the Arthurian cycle, appearing first in works by Chrétien de Troyes.

Lately, in arch-fi circles, the legend has taken new life, as the Holy Grail was connected with the secret of a Jesus Bloodline from his "wife" Mary Magdalene.

The Valencia Chalice

The most famous relic of the Holy Grail is the Holy Chalice, preserved at the Cathedral of Saint Mary, in Valencia [Spain]. The Chalice was supposedly taken by Peter to Rome in the first century, and then to Huesca in Spain by Saint Lawrence in the 3rd century. Archaeologists say the artifact is a 1st century Middle Eastern stone vessel, possibly from Antioch, Syria (now Turkey); its history can be traced to the 11th century, and it presently rests atop an ornate stem and base, made in the Medieval era of alabaster, gold, and gemstones. There is no proven connection with Jesus.

A chalice discovered in Antioch just before World War I (and now in the Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of New York) was also touted forsome time as the Holy Chalice. It is now recognized that the artifact is a 6th-century lamp.

Cf. the Holy Basin at Genoa, believed to be the dish (not the chalice) used by Jesus

In Depth

Holy Grail (sources) -- survey of ancient sources

Holy Grail (arts) -- survey of fictional works

Holy Grail (research) -- survey of scholarly works

The legend of the Holy Grail have been studied in all its ramifications since the nineteenth century by philologists and specialists in folklore such as Frédéric Guillaume Bergmann, Eugène Hucher, and others, until the recent works by Richard W. Barber.