Researcher believes Holy Grail still in Rome

[Jinsei]

An archaeologist has sparked a Da Vinci Code-style hunt for the Holy Grail after claiming ancient records show it is buried under a 6th century church in Rome.

The cup, which is 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 Rome churches which Christian pilgrims used to visit.

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 described a room of about 20sqm with a vaulted 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 explained that giving liquid refreshment 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 Holy Grail.

He also pointed to several beautiful mosaics and frescos in the basilica which feature images of the sacred cup. Mr Barbagallo said its presence in the church fitted the sketchy accounts of its early guardians.

In 258, during a phase of Christian persecution, Pope Sixtus V reportedly entrusted the treasures of the early Church to a deacon called Lorenzo. The deacon was martyred four days later and since then no one has ever seen the Holy Grail.

Various legends have it that the cup, given the name Holy Grail in the Middle Ages, was taken to different countries. Dan Brown’s work of fiction, The Da Vinci Code, which was turned into a movie starring Tom Hanks, said the cup had been buried at Rossyln Chapel in Scotland.

Mr Barbagallo said he believed it never went anywhere and stayed with St Lorenzo in his tomb.

Emperor Constantine built a shrine on the site of Lorenzo’s martyrdom in the 4th century and the main part of the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura was built in 580 on the same spot.

The Vatican said it was still to decide whether to open up the catacombs where Mr Barbagallo believes the cup is buried.

www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=27&ContentID=32107

[Icarus]

That would be cool to find the cup. I have to wonder though why so many people worry about things like cups and shrouds and such. Yes, they are cool, but do we need these things for a specific reason?

[Adona Mara]

For the weak in faith, relics have long been helpful. When the Bible wasn't nearly universally available, relics were a way for ordinary people to "connect" to their faith. Relics, stained-glass windows, passion plays -- all ways for people to learn about their faith, and give them something solid to hang on to.

Now that, theoretically, we've grown past that kind of support, relics are now just a part of our cultural heritage. But, oddly, they're still a way to connect with our faith. When you can't quite "get" the ethereal, the ephemeral becomes more important. What's been forgotten is that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things that he possesses" and "the things that are seen, they are temporal; but the things that are not seen, they're eternal."

[Theta Sigma]

adonamara said:

... "the things that are seen, they are temporal; but the things that are not seen, they're eternal."

I really like this quote, Adona. It reminds me of the words of Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Or those of one of my favourite Force wizards: "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter."

As I understand it, the Grail is purely symbolic... perhaps it's easier for folk -- obsessed, as they are, with the material world -- to believe in a physical object than to exercise their minds, ponder the abstract, and unravel its metaphysical meaning?