“He’s Already Got One, You See.”
King Arthur: Go and tell your master that we have been charged by God with a sacred quest. If he will give us food and shelter for the night, he can join us in our quest for the Holy Grail.
French Soldier: Well, I'll ask him, but I don't think he will be very keen. Uh, he's already got one, you see.
King Arthur: What?
Sir Galahad: He said they've already got one!
King Arthur: Are you sure he's got one?
French Soldier: Oh yes, it's very nice!
Ah, the classics. Those words from Monty Python and the Holy Grail seem especially on point with today's news. It seems that one Alfredo Barbagallo, an Italian archaeologist (not a pasta dish) claims he knows with complete certainty where the Holy Grail is right this moment. And it practically amounts to a Purloined Letter scenario - hidden in plain sight, so to speak.
The cup - said to have been used by Christ at the Last Supper - is the focus of countless legends and has been sought for centuries.
Alfredo Barbagallo, an Italian archaeologist, claims that it is buried in a chapel-like room underneath the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, one of the seven churches which Christian pilgrims used to visit when they came to Rome.
Mr Barbagallo based his claim on two years spent studying mediaeval iconography inside the basilica and a description of a particular chamber, in a guide to the catacombs written in 1938 by a Capuchin friar named Giuseppe Da Bra.
The friar describes a room of about 20 square metres with a vaulted roof ceiling. "In the corner of a wall-seat there can be seen a terracotta funnel whose lower part opens out over the face of a skeleton," he wrote.
Da Bra then explains that giving liquid refreshment (refrigerium) to the dead was part of ancient funeral rites.
According to Mr Barbagallo, who heads an association called Arte e Mistero [Art and Mystery], this funnel is the Grail.
He also points out to several beautiful mosaics and frescos in the basilica which feature images of the sacred cup.
Mr Barbagallo added that its presence in the church fits the sketchy accounts of its early guardians.
In 258 AD, during a phase of Christian persecution, Pope Sixtus V reportedly entrusted the treasures of the early Church to a deacon called Lawrence, Lorenzo in Italian. This deacon was martyred four days later and since then no one has ever seen the Grail.
And Barbagallo believes the grail was simply buried with Lorenzo in the church that now bears his name. The Vatican is investigating the catacombs in question.
By LR, Thursday, 21 June , 2007 @ 11:43 am
Now that’s pretty cool, and actually much more interesting than all that DaVinci Code nonsense.
I’d love to see pictures of this (all of the documents and stuff)
By Chris, Friday, 22 June , 2007 @ 7:37 am
Unfortunately, it will probably end up like the Ark of the Covenant being in a small chapel in Ethiopia, but no one is allowed in, or Noah’s Ark being found in Turkey, but no one is allowed onto the mountain, or the Ark of the Covenant (it gets around) being in a tunnel under the Temple Mount.