The Eternal Legend of The Holy Grail
According to Christian legend, the Holy Grail was the chalice Jesus used at the Last Supper. Joseph caught his blood in it during his crucifixion, which gave it power to heal.
Joseph of Arimathea, Jesus’ maternal great-uncle, took it to Glastonbury where he founded the first Christian Church and built an abbey to house the grail. The quest for the grail is a predominant theme in Arthurian legends.
One of the missions of the Crusade’s Knights Templar was to be the guardian of the chalice.
Joseph of Arimathea and the Holy Grail
According to Celtic legend, Joseph took Jesus for a visit to Glastonbury when he was twelve. After Jesus died, Pontius Pilate persecuted Joseph who fled to the Celtic Lands with the Holy Grail and a staff cut from a white thorn bush, built a church to hold the chalice and established the first Christian church.
When he stuck the staff into the earth, it blossomed. The Glastonbury Thorn’s flowers mysteriously appear every Christmas. Some believe Joseph put the grail in Glastonbury’s Chalice Well.
Arthurian Legend and the Holy Grail
The quest for the vessel became one of the primary themes in legends about King Arthur and his Knights of the Roundtable. Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to Medieval history and romantic fiction, defended Britain against Saxon invaders in the early sixth century.
Some Medieval historians believe details of Arthurian legends are created from folklore and romance fiction. Arthur’s historical existence is disputed and debated by historians in general.
Arthur and Guinevere were said to be buried on grounds surrounding Glastonbury Abbey. In the twelfth century, monks found the remains of a man with an inscription indicating it was the grave of Arthur on the Isle of Avalon. The remains were reburied in a black marble tomb during the thirteenth century and destroyed when Henry VIII obliterated the abbey after he split from the Catholic church.
It’s believed that the abbey was on the Island of Avalon. Physical evidence supports the possibility that the land had, once, been an island.
After Arthur was crowned King, Merlin told the court about the origins of the Round Table Joseph constructed and attaining the Holy Grail. Percival was knighted, but not made a member of the Round Table.
At Pentecost, Arthur announced that there would be a festival during which twelve knights would sit at the table, leaving the thirteenth chair empty to symbolize Judas’ seat at the Last Supper.
Following a discussion, Percival was allowed to sit in the empty chair, which cracked beneath him. A voice proclaimed that Percival was saved from death by the goodness of his father and grandfather, Bron. Those who were seated at the table would suffer as they were on the quest to find the Holy Grail.
The knight, guided by Bron, would find the grail. Percival fulfilled the prophecy and became the Holy Grail’s guardian.
Knights Templar and the Holy Grail
The Templar’s full name was "Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon." The Order was founded in 1119 by nine noblemen after Jerusalem was captured by the Crusaders during the First Crusade.
The Knights Templar’s mission was twofold: to attain guardianship of the Holy Grail and to protect Christian pilgrims visiting the Holy Land from the Infidels, the Turkish Moslems.
The Legend of the Holy Grail Continues
Chalices that are alleged to be the grail exist in several churches, including the Valencia Cathedral. The Emerald Chalice in Genoa, acquired at Aleppo during the Crusades, had been proclaimed as the Holy Grail until an accident happened while it was being returned to Aleppo from Paris, was found to be made of green glass, not the gemstone.
Wolfram von Eschenbach stated the Grail was in the castle of Munsalvaesche where it was kept safe by Titurel, the first Grail King. Some, including the monks of Montserrat, believe the grail is in a castle Catalonia, Spain.
Others claim the grail is buried beneath Scotland’s Rosslyn Chapel, Glastonbury’s Chalice Well or its spring or kept by a secret line of hereditary protectors.
According to folklore in Nova Scotia and Accokeek, Maryland, the grail was moved to these different sites by a priest who was hidden aboard the ship of Captain John Smith of Jamestown, Virginia fame.
The quest for the legendary Holy Grail continues. Some believe that it will never be found while others hope that its location will be discovered one day.
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