{"id":67638,"date":"2024-09-10T01:57:05","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T05:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=67638"},"modified":"2024-08-17T06:04:15","modified_gmt":"2024-08-17T10:04:15","slug":"holy-grail-or-holy-smokes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/09\/10\/holy-grail-or-holy-smokes\/","title":{"rendered":"Holy Grail! or Holy Smokes?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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They all say they\u2019ve got the Holy Grail. So who\u2019s right?<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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By\u00a0Julia Buckley<\/span>, CNN<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a012 minute read<\/div>\n
Published 5:00 AM EDT, Sat August 17, 2024 on the CNN website<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source>\"Jesus<\/picture><\/div>\n
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Jesus is often depicted at the Last Supper with a cup, as depicted here by Frans Pourbus the Younger, in a painting at the Louvre.<\/span><\/div>\n

Frans II Pourbus\/Gianni Dagli Orti\/Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Wherever you go, the experience is usually the same.<\/p>\n

You enter a church or a cathedral, and an ecclesiastical hush descends. You admire the architecture, the artworks, the centuries of history and of faith that have stood the test of time.<\/p>\n

And then you enter a special chapel or museum, where the holiest of items resides. Behind a glass case stands the stuff of legend: the Holy Grail.<\/p>\n

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Or is it? What makes this cup the Holy Grail \u2013 but not another?<\/p>\n

In Europe alone, there are said to be around 200 cups, each thought to be the Holy Grail \u2013 the cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper.<\/p>\n

Believers flock to see them and pray over them. But which is the real grail \u2013 and does it even exist?<\/p>\n

A religious or cultural reality?<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source>In \"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,\" the Holy Grail was a simple \"cup of a carpenter\" with miraculous healing powers.<\/picture><\/div>\n
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In \u201cIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade,\u201d the Holy Grail was a simple \u201ccup of a carpenter\u201d with miraculous healing powers.<\/span><\/div>\n

Lucasfilm Ltd\/Paramount\/Kobal\/Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One thing\u2019s for certain \u2013 the Holy Grail is embedded deep into our collective imagination. The idea of a quest is a constant theme in literature, art and movies, while we routinely refer to what would be our ultimate goals \u2013 but usually lie tantalizingly out of sight \u2013 as the \u201choly grail.\u201d Major medical breakthroughs are often called the \u201choly grail\u201d for the disease in question.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s part of pop culture, too. Dan Brown made millions off his interpretation of the Holy Grail in the \u201cDa Vinci Code,\u201d in which he posited that the grail was not in fact an object, but a secret \u2013 that Jesus Christ had fathered children with Mary Magdalen. And who can forget Harrison Ford reaching out for the \u201ccup of a carpenter\u201d in \u201cIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade\u201d?<\/p>\n

Even stories that have nothing to do with Christianity are often centered around quests \u2013 from Harry Potter to \u201cLord of the Rings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strip away those modern connotations, though, and we\u2019re left with a simple explanation. The Holy Grail is, supposedly, the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper.<\/p>\n

The goblet that Christ drunk from before his arrest, sentencing and crucifixion would of course be of interest to Christians around the world. And the fact that, over the centuries, legends have arisen of \u201cgrails\u201d producing miracles, has only added to the enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just one problem, says Joanne Pierce, professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI honestly do not think that the actual cup from the Last Supper still exists,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus certainly used a cup at the Last Supper, but if you look at some Gospel accounts, the room was already prepared by someone else [before they arrived]. So it may not have been his cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related article<\/span>Shroud of Turin still surrounded with mystery and passion<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For Pierce, a Catholic, the idea of the Holy Grail is more symbolic than realistic \u2013 in her words, \u201ca cultural reality rather than a religious reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for many people, the grail is a real object \u2013 and one that it\u2019s possible to see if you go to Valencia. Or L\u00e9on. Or Genoa. Or any of the many places where, tradition says the Grail resides.<\/p>\n

You might even be able to feel the mystical power of the Grail if you visit one of the many places it is said to be hiding, just out of site. Up the mountain of Montserrat, outside Barcelona, for example. Or in the\u00a0Polish countryside<\/a>, where the shadowy Knights Templar might have hidden it. Or around Glastonbury Tor, the mysterious hill in southern England where, medieval legend declared, Joseph of Arimathea brought the Grail shortly after Jesus\u2019 death.<\/p>\n

At Valencia, in eastern Spain, enter the cathedral, and to the right is a chapel, built expressly to house the \u201cSanto C\u00e1liz,\u201d or \u201choly chalice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTradition reveals that it is the same cup that the Lord used at the Last Supper for the institution of the Eucharist,\u201d says the cathedral\u2019s\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0about the \u201cHoly Chalice of the Lord\u2019s Supper.\u201d<\/p>\n

They believe that St. Peter took it to Rome, from where it was sent to Spain in the third century CE.<\/p>\n

Valencia\u2019s tourist board\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0also describes the\u00a0cup<\/a>\u00a0as \u201cthe Holy Chalice\u2026 used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper.\u201d Announcing that you have the Holy Grail is, of course, a tourism draw. It has been since the medieval period, when Europeans taking part in the Crusades would bring back \u201crelics\u201d from Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

From worship to tourism<\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source>\"Relics<\/picture><\/div>\n
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Relics are commonly used during worship in Christianity. This lance, which supposedly pierced Jesus\u2019 side, can be found in Etchmiadzin Cathedral in Armenia.<\/span><\/div>\n

Dean Conger\/Corbis\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In fact, relics have been central to Christianity since the start, says Pierce.<\/p>\n

When early Christians were martyred, other believers would pray at their graves. \u201cThe martyr acted as a patron or intercessory for their prayers to be lifted up to heaven\u201d \u2013 a practice taken from ancient Rome, where the \u201cpatronage system was an important part of society.\u201d That idea of saints intensifying prayer, or flagging it to the right place, persists in Christianity today.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t just the graves of martyrs that became holy; it was anything to do with their body, or things they had touched. \u201cObjects they might have handled were considered to have that same grace \u2013 a connection with the holy,\u201d says Pierce.<\/p>\n

Of course, the cup held by Jesus with which he showed the disciples how to perform the eucharist, on the table as he announced that he was soon to be betrayed, would be the holiest of holy objects.<\/p>\n

Little wonder that so much effort has gone into finding the Grail.<\/p>\n

During the time of the Crusades, interest in Jesus\u2019 life on Earth increased, says Pierce. People were \u201cgoing back and forth\u201d between Europe and the Holy Land, looking for artifacts that could have been related. That\u2019s why most of the supposed Holy Grails around Europe first arrived on the continent during those centuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s similar to the interest in the paranormal we have now,\u201d says Mathew Schmalz, founding editor of the Journal of Global Catholicism and professor of religious studies at Holy Cross.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Middle Ages, it reached a public consciousness that it didn\u2019t have before.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Related article<\/span>Lessons learned from hiking the Camino de Santiago in Spain and Portugal<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But over the centuries, collecting relics hasn\u2019t purely been about getting closer to God, says Schmalz. There were \u201cvarious economic interests related to pilgrimage,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelics were taken away from tombs and widely dispersed. You have a variety of places becoming pilgrimage sites which was a very lucrative business for those who had the relics.\u201d Religious tourists would make pilgrimages to these places, boosting the local economy as they did so.<\/p>\n

Relics were also political in the time of the Crusades. \u201cFinding items like the lance that pierced the side of Christ was considered affirmation of the divine mission to \u2018liberate\u2019 the Holy Land,\u201d says Schmalz.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the reasons that some \u201crelics\u201d are so numerous that they couldn\u2019t possibly be true.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could construct a city with the wood that\u2019s claimed to be the true cross,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Jesus or \u2026 King Arthur?<\/h2>\n
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In the Medieval period, the Holy Grail legend was linked to the mythology of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Galahad, seen here, was supposed to have found it.<\/span><\/div>\n

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The Holy Grail may have started out as a sacred relic for Christians, but over the centuries, it has also come to have relevance to others. For starters, it has been linked to the legendary King Arthur since the Medieval period \u2013 thanks to chivalric poetry, says Pierce.<\/p>\n

A ninth-century French poem posited that Joseph of Arimathea had caught the blood of Christ in the Grail during the crucifixion and had later taken it to Glastonbury in what\u2019s now England.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was conflated with Celtic, Irish, Welsh and pre-Christian narratives about objects imbued with power,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

A \u201cgraal\u201d or grail in English originally referred to a deep dish, serving platter or even a cauldron belonging to early British kings, according to ancient myth.<\/p>\n

In the 12th century, Chr\u00e9tien de Troyes\u2019 poem \u201cPerceval, the Story of the Grail\u201d is a romp including King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, a chivalrous quest, a bloody lance \u2013 and a glittering grail, a serving dish with magical healing powers.<\/p>\n

By the 15th century, Perceval had become\u00a0Galahad<\/a>, the son of Arthurian knight Lancelot, who goes on a quest for the grail, finds it, and chooses to die on the way back after a heavenly vision. Galahad, by the way, was able to heal the sick and perform miracles.<\/p>\n

Sound familiar?<\/p>\n

How one woman \u2018found\u2019 the Holy Grail<\/h2>\n
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The Basilica of San Isidoro in L\u00e9on, Spain, is home to what historian Margarita Torres Sevilla believes is the Holy Grail.<\/span><\/div>\n

Raquel Maria Carbonell Pagola\/LightRocket\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

So what is it like to have a Holy Grail in your city? Representatives from the Cathedral of Valencia didn\u2019t reply to request for comment from CNN. Neither did anyone from the Italian cathedral of Genoa \u2013 home to the Sacro Catino, a beautiful glass bowl, once thought to have been the Grail, made of emerald, but now seen as more likely to be crystal, and work of Islamic art from the 9th or 10th century, brought to Italy in the 11th.<\/p>\n

But someone who is convinced she has the grail in her hometown is Margarita Torres Sevilla, professor of medieval history at the University of L\u00e9on in Spain.<\/p>\n

In fact, Torres was the one to discover that what was thought of as a mere medieval chalice in her city was \u2013 she believes \u2013 the Holy Grail.<\/p>\n

In 2010, she and colleague Jos\u00e9 Miguel Ortega del R\u00edo were working at the Basilica of San Isidoro, a church in L\u00e9on that doubles as the burial place for the royal dynasty of L\u00e9on and Castile. They were looking at items in the basilica\u2019s museum of medieval history.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome objects came from Islamic countries but didn\u2019t have the correct references,\u201d she says. Among them was the \u201cchalice of Do\u00f1a Urraca\u201d \u2013 an onyx chalice that had been adorned in a gold casing and encrusted with precious jewels. It had come to Spain from Egypt in the medieval period, apparently as a diplomatic present.<\/p>\n

Torres and Ortega del R\u00edo delved deeper into its provenance, asking a colleague in Cairo to look for documents that could explain this gift to the Spanish. What they found astonished them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the middle of the 11th century, there was a great famine in Egypt and the caliph had\u00a0asked for help<\/a>\u00a0from other Islamic countries,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In the library of Cairo\u2019s Al-Azhar university were two medieval parchments from the 14th century. One \u2013 apparently a historical account \u2013 recounted that the taifa (ruler) of D\u00e9nia had sent a boat full of food to Egypt. D\u00e9nia, near modern Valencia, was under Muslim rule at the time.<\/p>\n

The parchment goes on to say that in return for the help, the taifa made a request: for \u201cthe cup that the Christians call the Cup of the Messiah \u2026 used during the celebration with his disciples.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Around 200 places in Europe alone claim to have the Grail. From left are three contenders: the Santo Caliz from Valencia, the Sacro Catino from Genoa and the Caliz de Do\u00f1a Urraca from Leon.<\/span><\/div>\n

Alamy Stock Photo<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The cup had been found in \u201cone of the small churches that are on the outskirts of Jerusalem\u201d and possessed \u201cextraordinary medicinal powers\u201d according to Christians, said the document \u2013 which also gave the caveat that \u201cmen of science and doctrine disregard it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali bnu Muyahid ad-Danii, the ruler of Denia, requested it so that he could \u201csend to the King of L\u00e9on \u2026 to strengthen their alliance,\u201d the document continued.<\/p>\n

The previous year, L\u00e9on had attacked Valencia \u2013 war was getting too close to comfort for those in D\u00e9nia, and it appeared that the taifa wanted to placate Ferdinand I, the king of L\u00e9on. Ferdinand suffered from \u201cthe disease of the stones\u201d and the taifa thought that the miraculous cup might help.<\/p>\n

The other parchment, also from the 14th century, purports to be a copy of a letter from Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (known as Saladin), the 12th-century sultan of Egypt and Syria, recounting how he had asked to be sent the \u201cfine shard\u201d of the \u201choly stone\u201d or \u201ccup\u201d that had been chipped off during its journey to D\u00e9nia, for his sick daughter.<\/p>\n

She was healed by the \u201cpiece of stone placed upon her body,\u201d and the shard had been kept carefully in the Islamic public treasury, states the document.<\/p>\n

They went back to the cup in the church in L\u00e9on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe checked \u2013 it had a cut in it, as the parchment suggested,\u201d says Torres. \u201cWe knew we had a hot potato in our hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair claim to have dated the onyx cup to the first century, and believe that Do\u00f1a (princess) Urraca, Ferdinand\u2019s daughter, melted down all her jewelry to cover the chalice in riches. They\u2019ve even identified what they think is the onyx cup in a painting of the Last Supper at San Isidoro\u2019s royal pantheon, where the dynasty is buried. They believe that is a hint about the cup\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

Of course, not everybody believes them. One Oxford professor memorably said it was \u201cidiotic<\/a>\u201d to claim that the cup must have belonged to Jesus, even if it\u2019s of Roman origin.<\/p>\n

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Related article<\/span>A peripatetic pilgrimage: When travel feels like a secular religious experience<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Torres \u2013 proving that the Grail has penetrated culture like no other \u2013 likens her situation to that of Hollywood\u2019s\u00a0Indiana Jones taking his leap of faith<\/a>\u00a0before finding the Grail.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe closes his eyes and starts with a step. Our sensation was the same,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Christian, but my colleague is not. My mother was a historian; his father was a journalist.\u201d They were not the type to get carried away.<\/p>\n

The idea that a princess would have donated her jewelry to cover a broken cup in gold is, she says, \u201cLike the daughter of Bill Gates melting down her jewelry to cover a broken toy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torres\u2019 claims are certainly persuasive \u2013 and although she was L\u00e9on\u2019s city councilor for tourism from 2015 to 2019, she says she \u201cput a line between being a politician and a historian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Can she guarantee it\u2019s the cup of Christ? \u201cI can offer that the cup venerated in Jerusalem from the fourth century to the 11th century is the same as you see in the chalice of Urraca,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m not sure what happened from the first to the fourth century, because I was not in Jerusalem, not with Jesus Christ, and neither were you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018My faith doesn\u2019t depend on this\u2019<\/h2>\n
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In Valencia, there\u2019s a whole chapel dedicated to the Santo Caliz.<\/span><\/div>\n

Hemis\/Alamy Stock Photo<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For Pierce, who doesn\u2019t believe that the Grail exists anymore, items like the chalice of Urraca are still worthwhile as a cultural phenomenon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very skeptical \u2026 but what\u2019s important is the fact that these items were venerated \u2013 they\u2019re literary objects and cultural reality,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy faith doesn\u2019t depend on [this]. To believe in Jesus Christ doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that there are actual physical remnants of his [life].\u201d<\/p>\n

She compares the quest for the Grail to the Shroud of Turin. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it, it was fascinating, but analysis shows it\u2019s from a later period. That doesn\u2019t threaten my belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at all \u2013 someone believed in it so much that they fabricated it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Schmalz, who\u2019s \u201cdoubtful\u201d about whether the Grail still exists, agrees about the shroud.
\nNot that he\u2019s against all relics. He used to wear a piece of Pope John XXIII\u2019s vestment around his neck. \u201cI mysteriously lost it and many people said it was the result of a demonic attack,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it was more a result of my carelessness. But I do believe relics are important \u2013 they connect us not just with holy people but with God.\u201d<\/p>\n

His best bet about what the Grail would look like, if it exists? \u201cI\u2019d agree with the Indiana Jones vision of it as a simple cup \u2013 the \u2018cup of a carpenter\u2019 who was at a local inn. In some ways, that\u2019s the religious meaning \u2013 that something so simple and worldly could hold the blood of Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is that the Holy Grail sitting in L\u00e9on? Or Valencia? Or any of the other 200 places that claim to be home to it? We\u2019ll never know.<\/p>\n

But one thing is for sure. The idea of that simple cup of a carpenter looks set to stay in the public consciousness for another 2,000 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They all say they\u2019ve got the Holy Grail. So who\u2019s right? By\u00a0Julia Buckley, CNN \u00a012 minute read Published 5:00 AM EDT, Sat August 17, 2024 on the CNN website Jesus is often depicted at the Last Supper with a cup, as depicted here by Frans Pourbus the Younger, in a painting at the Louvre. Frans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":67314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14829],"class_list":["post-67638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-what-should-we-think-of-relics"],"yoast_head":"\nHoly Grail! or Holy Smokes?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"They all say they\u2019ve got the Holy Grail. So who\u2019s right? 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