Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
April 11, 2001
Does the Holy Grail exist?
Holy Cup of Valencia could be vessel Christ used, author says
Medieval legends about King Arthur, as well as the Hollywood film, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," have led most people to believe that the Holy Grail was lost. Few are aware that the Holy Cup of Valencia, sent to Spain in the third century, is the only Grail in the world that has not been proven to be inauthentic. In fact, when Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass with this venerated relic Nov. 9, 1982, he became the first successor of St. Peter to have the honor since St. Sixtus II, who entrusted it to St. Lawrence before his martyrdom.
In Christianity, the Holy Grail is the cup used by Jesus during the Last Supper to institute the Eucharist. According to an ancient tradition in the Catholic Church, St. Peter brought the relic to Rome, where it remained for more than 200 years and was used by the first 24 popes to celebrate Mass.
The fourth century Roman Catholic Canon reflects this belief. Based on the words used by the first popes during the Consecration, it states: "In like manner, after He had supped, taking also this excellent chalice into His holy and venerable hands, and giving Thee thanks, He blessed it, and gave it to His disciples..." Many believe that this indicates that the first popes thought that they were consecrating with the actual cup used by Jesus. With the changes of Vatican II, the word "this" was changed to "the."
This belief is supported by the tradition of St. Laurence, a Spaniard who was martyred in Rome in 258 AD. Valerian was in power at the time, one of the last and most dangerous emperors for Christians. The Romans were suffering a major economic crisis, and believed that the riches of the Church, which they imagined to be plentiful, could solve the problem. An edict was proclaimed in the year 257.
Pope Sixtus II, who refused to surrender the goods of the Roman Church, knew that he was about to be martyred. He entrusted everything of value to his deacon and treasurer Laurence, asking him to distribute the small amount of money and other valuables among the poor, and to save the relics. Laurence happily complied with his wishes, giving the cup to a Spaniard who immediately sent it to their homeland. When the Romans demanded that Laurence surrender the treasures of the Church, he presented himself at the Roman court, along with all of the poor to whom he had given the money. When Laurence announced, "These are the treasures of the Church," the Romans condemned him to be roasted on a gridiron. He died on Aug. 10, 258, only four days after Pope Sixtus II.
The cup was kept in Spain for 450 years without any difficulties, but this changed after the Muslim invasion of Spain in 711 AD. The relic was hidden in the Pyrenees for several hundred years, first in San Pedro de Siresa, later in Santa María de Sasabe, and finally in San Juan de la Peña, all in inaccessible locations. The last is a monastery near France, built under a rocky cliff with vertical walls. It is next to the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, the principal artery for the transmission of medieval culture. The Holy Cup arrived there in the 11th century and remained until 1399, during the time when the Arthurian legends were being written and diffused throughout Europe.
Martin the Humane, a pious king and great lover of relics, succeeded in getting the Holy Cup from the monks of San Juan de la Peña in 1399, an act that was carefully documented. After his death, Alphonse the Magnanimous brought it to his palace in Valencia, but soon released his treasure to the Cathedral where it has remained ever since.
The Holy Cup that is venerated today has been embellished. The original cup is semi-spherical, made of agate stone or oriental cornelian, but rests on a medieval chalice of pure gold, adorned with rubies, emeralds and pearls. The upper cup was made in Egypt, Syria or Palestine from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD.
A small break in the stone is noticeable today. As an archdeacon began Mass on Holy Saturday, April 3, 1744, the cup slipped and broke in four pieces. The master jeweler reassembled it that same day, and then glued it to the medieval base. A tiny chip is still missing. The first exhaustive study of the relic was carried out in 1960 by the Spanish archaeologist Antonio Beltrán, who was commissioned to proceed with the analysis as if it were an object found in an excavation. Beltrán concluded that "archaeology supports and definitively confirms the historical authenticity." He affirms that the original upper cup found in the Cathedral could have been on the table of the Last Supper. Although St. Ambrose and other early fathers of the Church shared the belief that St. Laurence was roasted to death, its historical reliability is doubted. Nevertheless, an ancient document in the National Library of Madrid not only affirms the tradition about the death of St. Laurence, but also the surrender of the Holy Grail to Laurence by Pope Sixtus II. The original Latin document was translated in 1636 by a theologian and published in Salamanca. He believed that the author was an abbot who founded a monastery near Valencia in the sixth century. The manuscript is filled with unknown details about St. Laurence and his parents. Orencio and Paciencia, Laurence's parents, were wealthy landowners from Huesca who intended to flee Spain when a woman and child were martyred near Toledo. They first went to the port city of Valencia, but were forced to remain there when Paciencia discovered she was pregnant. Five years after Laurence was born they set off on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They were shipwrecked off the coast of Italy, and decided to settle in Capua. It was there that Laurence met Sixtus II, who took him to Rome as his pupil. The document carefully records the act of the surrender of the Holy Grail to St. Lawrence by Pope Sixtus II. As Laurence distributed the money among the poor, he went into a cave where many Christians were hidden. There he entrusted the cup and other relics to Precelius, a Spaniard from the city of Hippo in ancient Carpentanea, now La Mancha. Laurence finally gathered together the blind, lame and disabled, and leaving them hidden in the house of Hyppolytus, presented himself before the prefect of Rome, without the treasures. When asked where they were, Laurence brought out the poor, and announced, "Here are the eternal treasures of the Church, which are distributed in each one of them. They cannot perish, nor are they subject to thieves." The prefect was so furious that he had the young martyr scourged, and subjected him to every torture, including a rack that dislocated his bones. Seeing that nothing frightened him, he ordered him to be roasted on Mt. Viminal, next to the Palace of Alustius. Janice Bennett holds a master's degree in Spanish Literature and teaches at Metropolitan State College of Denver. She has written a book "Sacred Blood, Sacred Image: The Sudarium of Oviedo, New Evidence for the Authenticity of the Shroud of Turin," which was released in February. A Littleton resident, Bennett is a parishioner at Our Lady of Fatima Parish.
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