Is "to carry the chalice" (carry on a tradition) an actual phrase?

Factual Questions
1

I heard the phrase 'to carry the chalice" (meaning to carry on a tradition? carry. a burden?) before. I am familiar with “to carry the poisoned chalice”. Is 'to carry the chalice" even a proper phrase? If so might it derive from a tradition of priests receiving their own chalice from family members?

" It’s traditional for new Roman Catholic priests to receive their own chalice from family members. If you know someone who is finishing up their year of seminary training, considering giving them a portable travel chalice set."

2

I couldn’t find the phrase in use online.

3

Maybe it’s a variant on “cup-bearer,” implying a devoted servant?

4

I think you might be on sounder ground with “bear a (golden/silver) chalice” which has application in several religions.

5

I’ve found few ngrams for ‘carry the poisoned chalice’, or ‘carry a poisoned chalice’, so I doubt that either phrase is in common use.

There are ngrams for ‘carry the chalice’ and ‘carry a chalice’, so the phrases exist in the wild. What they mean is another matter.

If you are talking about carrying on a tradition, ‘carrying the baton’ or ‘carrying the torch’ are much more commonplace phrases.

6

The chalice from the palace holds the brew that is true.

7

There is a biblical passage in Mark 14:36 and Matthew 26:39 that has Jesus, shortly before the arrest that will ultimately lead to his crucifixion, sense his upcoming suffering and pray to God to take this cup away from him (meaning to spare him the suffering after all). In some languages (e.g. my native German) this has led to a common saying whereby you want a chalice to pass by you (der Kelch geht an mir vorüber in German, based on the German translation of that biblical phrase), meaning you’re able to evade something bad that was meant to happen to you. I have never heard that phrase in English, but maybe your source uses it in such a fashion.

8

I’ve heard it in Unitarian-Universalist discussions. UU symbol is a lit chalice.

9

They broke the chalice from the palace, and replaced it with a flagon with a dragon. The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.

10

I think you’re on to something with that biblical reference of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. It makes sense in the sense of passing the burden on to someone else.

"My Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me . Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. … "

11

I have seen the phrase “pass the chalice” used to mean to pass on a burden, obligation, or responsibility, but I think this thread is the first time I’ve ever come across the phrase “carry the chalice”.

I’ve also seen the phrase “poisoned chalice”, but I don’t think I’ve ever come across the phrase “carry a poisoned chalice”.

12

I think that the similar-meaning phrase “Carry The Torch” is much more common in modern usage.