The quest for the Holy Grail

By Engr. Edgar Mana-ay

 

The Holy Grail, a legendary Christian relic, is supposed to be the goblet (a sort of a long-stemmed drinking glass), used by Jesus Christ Himself during the Last Supper. Legend further says that Joseph of Arimathea used the same goblet to collect His blood flowing from Christ’s side during the crucifixion. But in the Bible crucifixion episode, as narrated by the disciple Matthew (Matt. 27: 57-60), Joseph was alluded to as a rich man from Arimathea who was also a disciple of Jesus who begged to Pilate that he bury the body of Jesus. Joseph did so in his new tomb hewn out in a rock.

That was all that was mentioned of Joseph of Arimathea in the entire Bible. How come that if indeed he was the first possessor of the Goblet 2,000 years ago, it is now claimed to be buried in a secret crypt beneath a river in the West London suburb of Hounslow.

Different traditions described the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous powers that provide happiness, eternal youth, or sustainable infinite abundance. Just like the more famous and significant religious relic, The Arc of the Covenant, the search for both by governments (including the Nazis during World War II), religious orders, archaeologists, and soldiers of fortune has been profound for the past 2000 years with nothing to show as a result.

Adventure and mystery movies were also made about the search for both relics, such as the Indiana Jones series for the Lost Arc and the Da Vince Code, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Excalibur movies for the Holy Grail. Because of its elusiveness, the Holy Grail was never found, until now, despite centuries of “Holy Grail Quest.”

According to Merriam Webster dictionary, the phrase even found its way into modern vocabulary to refer to an elusive object or goal that is widely sought for its significance. Thus, if a new generation and perfect anti-COVID vaccine emerges later, it can be called as the “holy grail” of all vaccines; or finding the Holy Grail is the “Holy Grail” of archeological finds!

Despite the last supper having taken place in Roman-occupied Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, a 40-year-old amateur archaeologist and long-time enthusiast of the Holy Grail lore, Barrie-Jon Bower believed that the Holy Grail is in fact kept  below a river in Hounslow West London. The reason for this hypothesis has to do with the links between the Grail and the KNIGHTS TEMPLAR, a legendary knightly order that fought in the CRUSADES during the medieval era and are often linked to numerous theories of long-lost hidden treasures and Christian relics. The Knights Templar is a large organization of devout Roman Catholic Christians who carried out important missions to protect European travellers visiting the Holy Land while also carrying out military operations in exterminating Jews and Islams “infidels” (to them). They were a group of wealthy, powerful, and mysterious order that has fascinated historians and the public for centuries.

The Templars and the Crusaders were the medieval version of the modern-day ISIS because both plunder, destroy temples and house of worship of other religions, and kill in the name of their God, the former for the Roman Catholic and the latter for Islam. The Templars were certainly a real order and had presence in locations throughout Christendom during that time. For some Christians, both the Knight Templars and the Crusaders represent a high point of religious idealism, forsaking career, homes, and even sacrificing their lives to capture Jerusalem from the Muslims.

But for the early Jews scattered all over Europe the two organizations represent murder and forced baptism. Jews unfortunate enough to live in cities through which the crusaders passed on their way to Jerusalem as ordered by Pope Urban II were generally offered the choice of conversion or death, a few lucky communities were permitted to pay a large bribe to be left unmolested. Approximately 12,000 Jews were killed in the early months of the first crusade.

Bower theorized that Hounslow in West London is one of the many places in Europe that the Templar Knights have trained and escaped from King Phillip IV of France who in the 1300’s ordered the arrest of the Templar and had them executed for idolatry, though most regard the charges as fraudulent and from forced confessions.

In fact, the official current position of the Roman Catholic Church is that the Templars had done nothing wrong. It is also true that the Templars did have a presence in Britain because many members of the Order fled to Britain to escape persecution in mainland Europe. Ultimately, their lands, assets, and most of their members were later given to another knightly order, the Order of the Hospital of St. John, also known as the Knights Hospitaller, a knightly order that exists to this very day as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Regardless, it is unclear if these links are enough to place the Grail in Britain, or even IF the Templars ever had the Grail in the first place. Indeed, many have tried finding the Grail throughout history all over the world, with the Nazis even launched efforts to find it in the Catalonia region of Spain. From Latvia to Scotland, more than 200 goblets in Europe alone have been posited as the holy relic. Some claims the cup rests in the sewers of Jerusalem, but the persistent belief is that the Knights Templar took the goblet from Jerusalem and eventually secreted it away in the New World locations ranging from Minnesota, Maryland to Nova Scotia.  Many historians are skeptical of the latest claim of the holy Grail’s discovery, and there is no evidence that the holy Grail even exists! The cup received only a passing mention in the Bible. The grail legend is a literary invention of the 12th century with no historical basis. You cannot search for something that does not exist! Continued search for it, is an exercise in futility “as futile as a clock in an empty house.”