The Mystery of the Holy Grail

Rogelio G. Balo Ph.D.


Synopsis

Watching the movie “Da Vinci Code” had given me the impetus to do some research on the mystery of the Holy Grail. I likewise watched several YouTube documentaries on the mysterious subject. 

Conspiracy theorists have even woven the legend of the Holy Grail into their webs of secret and unknowable history, presenting a story that Dan Brown infamously adopted in “The Da Vinci Code.”  This version claims that the Holy Grail was really the womb of Mary Magdalene, from her marriage with Jesus, who had not really died on the cross, nor risen from the dead — and who, according to Brown and his sources, is not really the Incarnate God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who came to earth to redeem us and establish His Church.

Likewise, a host of movies ranging from Monty Python and the Holy Grail to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, not to mention literature spanning from medieval epic romances to The Once and Future King, the Holy Grail is perhaps the best known of all the holy relics closely associated with the life of Jesus Christ. The search for this holy object is so ingrained in the public consciousness that the word "grail" has come to mean any object and goal you work long and hard to obtain and achieve.

But what do we really know about the Holy Grail? Does it come from the Bible, from stories of King Arthur, or what else? Is it even a cup? Is it real?

Schools of Thoughts and Theories

*The most popular of these stories says that the Holy Grail was the cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper and that Joseph of Arimathea later used to collect drops of Jesus’ blood at the crucifixion. If you're only passingly familiar with the Gospels, there's a chance you might assume some or even all of that is in the Bible.

 In fact, the Gospels merely mention there was a cup Jesus used at the Last Supper with no special attention drawn to it, and there's certainly no mention of Joseph catching Christ's blood in it at the crucifixion. In fact, the only information we have about Joseph of Arimathea is he was a member of the Jewish high council and a devoted follower of Jesus who offered his own tomb as a burial place for Jesus after the crucifixion.

This legend has it that Joseph of Arimathea or his descendants brought the cup to Britain where it was lost. This is where the legend of the Holy Grail becomes intertwined with the legend of King Arthur and his knights. Because this mythical vessel was supposed to be the source of all things good and the source of divine favor, those who were noble and pure in heart—such as King Arthur and his knights—desired to possess it and use its power for good.

Jesus Bloodline

The Jesus bloodline refers to the proposition that a lineal sequence of descendants of the historical Jesus has persisted to the present time. The claims frequently depict Jesus as married, often to Mary Magdalene, and as having descendants living in Europe, especially France but also the UK. Differing and contradictory Jesus bloodline scenarios, as well as more limited claims that Jesus married and had children, have been proposed in numerous modern books. Some such claims have suggested that Jesus survived the crucifixion and went to another location such as France, India or Japan.

Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln developed and popularized the idea of a bloodline descended from Jesus and Mary Magdalene in their 1982 book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail in which they asserted: " we do not think the Incarnation truly symbolizes what it is intended to symbolize unless Jesus were married and sired children.

Specifically, they claimed that the" sangraal" of medieval lore did not represent the San Graal (Holy Grail), the cup drunk from at the Last Supper, but both the vessel of Mary Magdalene's womb and the Sang Real, the royal blood of Jesus represented in a lineage descended from them.

In their reconstruction, Mary Magdalene goes to France after the crucifixion, carrying a child by Jesus who would give rise to a lineage that centuries later would unite with the Merovingian rulers of the early Frankish kingdom, from whom they trace the descent into medieval dynasties that were almost exterminated by the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars, leaving a small remnant protected by a secret society, the Priory of Sion

The Mystery of the Holy Grail

There are many legends surrounding the Holy Grail; however, most scholars believe the original source of the legends is a Celtic myth of a horn of plenty (or cauldron or other vessel).

 This vessel was supposed to be the source of all things good, such as unquenchable food, health, success in battle, etc. According to the legend, this vessel was the source of divine favor because it was thought to be the cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper, or a cup that had caught Jesus’ blood as He hung on the cross.

However, not all early Grail stories are consistent on even this. In some stories the Grail is a cup, while in others it is a cauldron or a stone. In these mythical stories, the importance is not what the Grail is but what it represents, which is divine power.

In her book, Stephanie A. Mann of Kansas writes “But all these false views of the Holy Grail cannot diminish the true mystery of the real presence of Jesus Christ in the holy Eucharist. We have found the Holy Grail; Jesus Christ gave it to the Church the night before He died and told the apostles to “do this in memory of me” (Lk 22:19). At every Mass the words of consecration make the Lord present in holy Communion, our sacramental source of nourishment and healing.”


Sept. 28, 2022

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