Ok it is a cup, or bowl, used by Jesus. But why this particular object? Why not his robes, sandals, canteen, an object used by him for a longer period of time?
I guess I’m asking why the legend grew up around this particular object.
Because it’s what de Boron wrote about, basically.
The most commonly accepted interpretations of the origins of the Holy Grail legends point to a fusion of Christian symbolism with pre-Christian Celtic mythology, and the Celts already had the idea of a magic vessel (see, e.g., the magic cauldron in the tales of Bran the Blessed), but not magic sandals.
So it’s sort of the 5th element of the Trinity? 
Or maybe not.
A good read about Boron and the Grail legend is here
It’s the cup used at the Last Supper. It contained the “blood of Christ”. Pretty much as special as you can get, only trumped by the “True Cross” (All 9000 board-feet of it) and the Holy Breadknife used to dismember Jesus at the last supper.
(Sarcasm aside, I assume in those days bread was broken rather than sliced)
Just as, today, the Chalice has a special place in the ritual of the mass.
John refers to Jesus dipping a morsel of bread, so (assuming it actually occurred) I think that’s a safe assumption.
It touched the Blood of Christ (if you’re Catholic). That’s what makes it holy similar to the Holy Lance.
Well, not only was it a cup used to give the traditional Passover blessing, but it was used to catch His blood as he was dying on the Cross. Or not- it also could have been used by St. Peter to celebrate the first Mass.
The origin likely has nothing at all to do with Celtic legend (altho doubtless it was mixed in by later writers) but in the Sacramant of Holy Communion, which dates from the NT itself, and was known to practiced as early as AD55, long before any Celtic mythology got mixed in with it.
However, again, like I said, the various “magical powers” of the Grail likely came in later and are muddled with Celtic symbolism
Oddly, the True Grail is more likely that not the Holy Chalice of Valencia, the cup of which is a simple agate cup (oddly it is blood red) which dates from the 1st century and made in that area. A base was later added. It has never been accorded any special supernatural powers, other than being a Holy Relic.
The problem of the “Holy Grail” is that two different objects are mixed: An ancient pre-christian dish and the cup of the Last Supper.
There is/was a tradition in England (it’s exclusively English/British) that Joseph of Arimates went there after the crucifixion, carrying the cup of the Last Supper. Then Boron mixed previous stories of the dish with the cup and our “classical” view of the Grail is born.
There are a couple of chalices, two of them in Spain, that claim to be the cup of the Last Supper.
It’s not “exclusively British”. There is a similar fable in France about how Joseph of Arimathea went there (possibly with Mary, as discussed in The Da Vinci Code and the works it cribbed.) Unless you mean it’s an exclusively British idea that Joseph went to England.
The bowl and the dish that, inverted, forms the base are a matched set: what was added was the bejeweled stem that turns both into a cup.
The Grail that Arthur’s knights quested for was originally conceived of as a completely separate object, with no particular relation to Jesus (except possibly allegorically, if you think the Fisher King was meant to represent Jesus). Eventually, embellishments to the legend added that it was originally the cup that Jesus drank out of at the Last Supper and/or that contained blood from the Crucifixion, but I don’t know if there were any legends about that vessel before those embellishments to the Arthurian legend.
The Grail is holy because it held the Guacamole.
Actually, I wouldn’t be so quick to discount early Celtic influence on the New Testament church. There’s some evidence that the Galatians (who received a letter from Paul that made it into the Bible) were Celts.
Not according the few articles I’ve read about it.
http://www.catedraldevalencia.es/en/el-santo-caliz_historia.php
Notice that those articles don’t even agree on what the foot is made of.
Ah, I was wondering about that blood bit. It’s not part of Spanish legends.
Thanks everyone,
:smack: I feel dumb now missing the communion angle.
AKA the Spear of Destiny.
Guten tag!
“Some evidence”? This is news? That’s odd, I thought it was pretty much common knowledge, and had been since antiquity. I’ve never heard the Galatians referred to as anything other than Celts. The Romans certainly called them Gauls. That’s where the name “Galatia” comes from. Wiki goes into some details about the Gallic migrations into Anatolia.