Pope Benedict and the Holy Grail

Grail of Valencia










This is where the history firms up a bit.  Various manuscripts indicated that the stone cup was kept in several places.   By 533 it was in the Cathedral of Huesca, which was built in that year.  Huesca was where St. Lawrence was from and perhaps where the Spaniard Precelius took it.  After the 711 invasion by the Moslems it was hidden in the Pyrenees in various caves.  After Charlemagne’s journey to the area in 777, the location of the cup, which was hidden, roused up many of the “grail legends” that come down to us in many forms today.  In 830 the cup is at the Monastery of San Pedro de Siresa.  In 1071 it was taken to the monastery of San Juan de la Peña.  In 1190 CretiÃƒÂ©n de Troyes wrote a 9324 line poem Perceval about the “Holy Grail”.  In 1209 Wolfram von Eschenbach wrote Parcival, based on Spanish legends, which centuries later inspired Richard Wagner’s opera.  In 1322 a Sultan sells a gold cup from Jerusalem, which he claims is the cup of the Last Supper, to Jaime II, King of Valencia and AragÃƒÂ³n.  This is perhaps the cup which is converted to become the base for the ancient stone cup. In 1399 the stone cup was given to King Martin the Humane and taken to Barcelona.  King Alfonso V of AragÃƒÂ³n sends the cup to Valencia.  In 1744, the cup is broken, repaired and fixed to its base.  In 1936, to save it from the Marxists, a woman named MarÃƒÂ­a Sabina Suey smuggled the cup out of the Cathedral wrapped in newspaper.  She hid it in vaJohn Paul IIrious places to keep it from desecration and destruction.  The cup returns to the Cathedral of Valencia in 1939 with the end of the war where it remains to this day.




It could really be it, after all.

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About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

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5 Responses to Pope Benedict and the Holy Grail

  1. Catholic Lady says:

    Young and old, believers and non-believers, are all drawn to the mystery of the Holy Chalice in one way or another. Fascinating piece, thanks.

  2. Take this with a grain of salt, but it is a great read.

    Hmm … Perhaps someone could actually write a fascinating novel about the true Holy Grail down through the ages, the Knights of the Round Table, and all that. Think about the possibilities.

  3. Don Marco says:

    The mystery of the Holy Chalice, the Inexhaustible Chalice, speaks to many hearts as July, the month of the Precious Blood approaches. The euchological texts for the Mass and Office of July 1st, Feast of the Most Precious Blood, are a treasure. In suppressing that feast Ã¢â‚¬â€ or rather in uniting it to Corpus Domini Ã¢â‚¬â€ the reformers forfeited a liturgical and mystical splendour. Some of us Ã¢â‚¬â€ ahem!Ã¢â‚¬â€ will celebrate a Votive Mass of the Precious Blood on July 1st.

  4. Don Marco: I am with you there. It would be good to recapture a devotion to the Most Precious Blood, the slightest drop of which was worth the salvation of the world. Hopefully we will soon have an accurate translation of pro multis also!

  5. Don Marco says:

    One can only wonder if those responsible for suppressing treasures like the sublime Octave of Pentecost and the Feast of the Most Precious Blood had any inward experience of the liturgy of those days. The the texts of those feasts and of others like them nourished the faithful, were savoured and prolonged in personal prayer, bore fruits of holiness. Why then were they so violently ripped from our books and our hearts?