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mysteries |
The Search for the Holy Grail |
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For over 800 years, stories about a sacred vessel once used by Jesus have inspired people to search for it. But is there any evidence that it ever existed? As the 12th Century drew to a close, stories of a sacred object with miraculous powers spread like wildfire across Western Europe and England. Written mostly as poems, these stories told of how the Holy Grail - as this object was called - would appear in visions and dreams. It could cure the sick, feed the hungry and bestow longevity on those who set eyes on it. Stranger still, the Grail seemed to have no definite form, but would appear as a chalice, a bowl or a dish. In one version of the story it changed shape no less than five times within a single vision. But despite its uncertain form, the Holy Grail was so highly prized that the legendary knights of the Round Table, led by King Arthur, dedicated the rest of their lives to finding it. Down the centuries, countless other people have also undertaken this quest, and numerous cups and bowls have been presented as the Holy Grail. to this day, however, none of them have convinced the experts that they are the genuine article. So what is this elusive talisman? And where did it originate from? In Joseph d'Arimathie, one of the earliest Grail romances - as the stories are collectively called - the Holy Grail is clearly identified as the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper. Written by Englishman Robert de Borron sometime around 1190, the story tells how the cup finds its way into the hands of Joseph of Arimathea, who uses it to catch the blood from Christ's wounds as the body is being washed and prepared for burial. Sometime later, Christ appears to Joseph in a vision and entrusts the cup to his care. Joseph travels to England with the Holy Grail, and establishes a church at Glastonbury, in Somerset, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Borron, then switches the setting to Arthurian times, where the search for the Grail begins. By this point in the story the Grail is now more of a ghostly apparition than a physical object. Historical Basis. Unlikely though Borron's story sounds, some of it appears to be based on historical fact. In the biography Jesus, the historian A. N. Wilson reveals that there was a legend among Cornish metal-workers that Jesus came to Britain in his teens with his mother and cousin, Joseph of Arimathea. Handed down until as recently as the 1930's, the tradition also maintains that 30 years after Jesus' death, Joseph returned to England to bury the Holy Grail at Glastonbury. Intriguingly, Wilson also discovered that a similar legend existed in Galilee, Palestine - Jesus' homeland as a young boy. The evidence for Joseph of Arimathea being a blood relative of Jesus is not conclusive. But confirmation of Joseph's journey to England is provided in a letter from St. Augustine of Canterbury to Pope Gregory in 597. The letter names the first missionaries to England as the apostles Philip and James - and also Joseph of Arimathea. But, curiously, there is no mention of thw Holy Grail. French Connection. In other versions of the Grail story, Joseph of Arimathea takes the Grail only as far as France. With his followers, he builds a castle or temple on Mount Muntsalvach (the Mountain of Salvation) to house the holy relic. The site of this castle has been a source of much speculation over the years, but it is generally accepted as being Montsegur, in the Languedoc region of southern France. Montsegur was a mountaintop stronghold of the heretical religious sect known as the Cathars, or Albigensians, whop flourished - and were persecuted by the Catholic Church - in the 12th and 13th centuries. There are good reasons for linking the Grail with the Cathars. Among the Cathar treasure said to have been kept in Montsegur, shortly before its capitulation to the armies of the Church in 1244, was a 'rich cup'. It is not clear whether this cup was credited with magical powers, but it was almost certainly used by the Cathars in a mystical feast, the manisola. Interestingly, this feast appears to have been similar to the banquet celebrated by the Arthurian knights in the Grail stories before they pledge their lives to finding the Holy Grail. Whatever its origins, the cup was clearly held to be priceless by the Cathars. Just days before Montsegur surrendered to the Catholics, four Cathars - risking life and limb - climbed down the steepest side of the mountain in the dead of night. With them they had the treasure including the cup, which they are thought to have taken to a secret hideaway. One theory is that the cup might have been taken to Scotland by the Knights Templars in the early 14th century. Founded in 1119, the Templars were an order of warrior priests that was formed to protect Christian pilgrims on their journeys to and from Jerusalem, the Holy City. Many Templars came from Cathar territory in the south of France. Of these a great number were known to be Cathar sympathizers, if not Cathars themselves. And it is quite possible that the cup may have been placed in their guardianship sometime after the fall of Montsegur. However, 60 years later, the Templars, who had grown too rich and powerful for the French King Philip IV's comfort, suffered a similar fate to the Cathars. In 1307, the King sent his forces to attack all the Templar strongholds simultaneously. Some Templars, who according to one version of the Grail stories were the Guardians of the Holy Grail, managed to escape with the cup. Making their way to Scotland, so the legend goes, they hid the cup inside the Prentice Pillar in the chapel at Roslin Castle, Midlothian, where it apparently remains to this day. Grail Church. Was the Cathar cup the Holy Grail? No one can say for certain because, officially, the Cathar treasure has never been recovered. However, Dr. Arthur Guirdham, a leading authority on the Cathars, believed that the their treasure was some sort of secret knowledge. If this was the case what could this knowledge have been? Of a number of possible explanations perhaps the most beguiling is that the Cathars had in their possession the spiritual teachings of Jesus. These teachings were allegedly given to Joseph of Arimathea, instead of the Apostles, the founding fathers of the Catholic Church. This legend dovetails with the view held by some historians that there may have been a secret Church of the Grail - originally established by Joseph of Arimathea - which was prospering alongside the orthodox Church by the time the Grail romances were being written. In support of this view, A. N. Wilson claims that two branches of the Church existed in the first century AD. The first Church left Palestine and spread Christ's message through Europe, while the other believed his more spiritual teachings were intended only for the Jews. This second branch may well have been in the hands of Jesus' mother and family and may also have adopted the Grail as its central symbol. If Joseph was related to Jesus, it could be that the family brought these teachings to France, where they gradually evolved into Cathar beliefs. Placing the Cathars at the centre of a Grail cult, with the cup of the Last Supper as its centerpiece, would certainly explain why the Church brutally stamped out the Cathar movement. As mythology expert John Mathews explains in his book The Grail, the blood of Christ - and by extension the cup that caught the drops from his wounds - was associated with unlimited life-giving powers and with direct communion with God. If the cup was also connected with the spiritual teachings that Jesus had given to Joseph of Arimathea, it would have destroyed the Church's claim to be the sole representative of God's will on Earth. The main problem with all these theories, however, is that there is no written reference anywhere to the Holy Grail being in Joseph of Arimathea's possession until Robert de Borron's account - over 1,000 years after Joseph allegedly became the guardian of the cup. This fact alone has been enough to persuade many experts that the Holy Grail has never existed in physical form. Mythical Vessel. The majority of scholars consider the Holy Grail to be just one of a long line of magical sacred vessels that stretches back into antiquity. In their opinion, the Grail romances borrowed heavily from these myths - and also from the mystical traditions of the Near and Far East. These traditions found their way into 12th Century Europe via Crusaders returning from fighting the Muslims for control of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. |
Sources: The X Factor |