OPINION
The Holy Grail: it’s, well, the Holy Grail. The cup supposedly used by Christ at the Last Supper has long been the archetype of the quest-object in Western literature and religion. Much of the Arthurian mythos revolves around the knights’ search for the sacred object. More recently, it’s been the central object of Dan Brown thrillers and the Indiana Jones films. And, honestly, who wouldn’t search for an object that can allegedly bestow eternal life on its possessor?
But where did the legend of the Grail come from? And where might it be now, if it exists at all?
Today, the Holy Grail is considered to be an important Christian relic, which, according to some legends, can grant eternal youth and happiness. But the Bible only makes passing references to cups that might be the grail.
As Christianity.com explains, there is no Biblical verse that specifically describes the Holy Grail or its powers. But there are certain lines in scripture that could potentially reference the object. In Luke 22:20, for example, which describes the Last Supper, Jesus takes a cup and tells his disciples: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
There is also mention of how Jesus is offered bitter wine while on the cross in Mark 15:23: “Then they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.” However, there is no direct reference to the Holy Grail there either.
So, while the Bible passingly acknowledges a cup at the Last Supper (which isn’t exactly surprising: a group of lower and middle-class Jews in first-century Judea would hardly be supping with glassware that was relatively rare and expensive at the time), the idea of the Grail itself, as a specifically divine object, did not emerge until much later. Possibly under influence from pagan traditions. The Celts’ father god, for instance, carried a magical cauldron, similar to the pagan Roman cornucopia, or “horn of plenty”.
(Interestingly, the “four treasures” of the Celtic Tuatha de Danann supernatural race, are familiar to us today on playing cards: the stone, the spear, the sword and the cup. These later became the four Tarot suits: discs, wands, swords and cups; and later, diamonds, clubs, spades and hearts.)
However it happened, Grail legendry first emerged in the Middle Ages.
Chretien de Troyes’ unfinished Conte del Graal (Story of the Grail), or Perceval, first presented the grail as a divine object in 1180. Two decades later, Robert de Boron linked the Holy Grail, the Last Supper and Jesus Christ’s crucifixion in his poem Joseph d’Arimathie.
These works and others folded the Holy Grail into the King Arthur legend. They describe how knights like Perceval and Sir Galahad sought the divine object, which is described as a vessel with miraculous powers.
From this point, the Holy Grail – and the quest to find it – became a cornerstone of Western literature. It also elevated the object from something of an aside in the Bible to an important Christian relic.
Legend and modern fiction have located the Grail everywhere from Glastonbury, England, Antioch in Turkey, lost in the sewers of Jerusalem and even in Toledo, Ohio. Recalling Martin Luther’s barbed joke that, “Christ had 12 apostles and 18 of them are buried in Germany alone,” there are some 200 claimed Grail locations in Europe.
A contender with possibly stronger provenance than most is the Basilica of San Isidoro in Spain.
In 2014, a book called Kings of the Grail suggested that a goblet held at the Basilica of San Isidoro in Leon, Spain, could be the divine object. Its authors claimed to have found evidence in ancient Egyptian manuscripts that the Holy Grail was taken from Jerusalem to Cairo, where it fell into the hands of an emir who ruled in Spain. The emir allegedly gave the chalice to King Ferdinand, and then it found its way into the basilica in the 11th century.
Dating of the chalice does indeed suggest that it was made between 200 BCE and 100 CE. This and the historical documentation, the authors wrote, suggests that the chalice was in fact a cup that was used at the Last Supper (though it’s impossible to determine if Jesus drank from it).
At face value, the ornate, gold and jewel-encrusted relic at San Isidro hardly seems likely to have been used by an ancient Jewish carpenter. But enthusiasts insist that the frippery is merely Mediaeval additions: the original cup buried under all the ornamentation is a much plainer piece of carved agate, polished with myrrh.
Still, other scholars firmly insist that the cup is a Mediaeval fake.
Not far away, in Valencia, is another plausible claimant to Grail status.
The Valencia Cathedral says that the Holy Grail was taken by St Mark, a disciple of St Peter, from Jerusalem to Rome. When it was in Rome, it was used by early popes (including St Peter, whom Roman Catholic tradition defines as the very first pope) in order to conduct the Eucharist.
“St Peter, the first pope, took the cup to Rome,” a church attendant explained to a BBC journalist in 2018. “The popes were the only people who could give mass, so St Peter and the rest of popes used the grail for the Eucharist, considering it the one Christ used. Then, when the Emperor Valerian began to persecute the Christians [from 257 CE], it was sent to Huesca, Spain, because it was no longer safe in Rome.”
The object was reportedly moved around Spain until the 15th century, when it was brought to Valencia. It’s been there pretty much ever since.
Interestingly, a 1960s study found that the Valencia cup is also made of agate – more specifically, a type of agate which was only found between ancient Palestine and Egypt.
It also dated back to the first or second century BCE, and scholars say that the cup resembles a Jewish kiddush cup, or blessing cup, which is what Jesus would have probably used at the Last Supper.
Yet, despite the Mediaeval obsession with the Grail, an obsession which reverberates through Western culture today, is the Grail really the, well, Holy Grail of Christianity?
Though the Holy Grail is regarded today as an important Christian relic, many Christians will be the first to tell you that the elusive chalice isn’t that important in terms of understanding the Bible or worshipping Jesus Christ.
“As Christians, we know eternal life only comes from the Lord, not from relics,” Christianity.com writes. “If we spend our lives questing after supposed relics with supernatural powers, we miss the point of true Christianity and our purpose here on earth to spread the Gospel. Healing comes from God alone, not from objects Jesus or some saint supposedly touched.”
All That’s Interesting
Indeed, it’s hard to miss that the legend of the Grail seems awfully reminiscent of the central tenet of Christianity: This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.