Police hunt for the ‘Holy Grail’: Burglars steal ancient wooden chalice

Police hunt for the ‘Holy Grail’: Burglars steal ancient wooden chalice said to be carried to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea after crucifixion of Christ…

Officers were called to the village of Weston-under-Penyard in Herefordshire, after the elderly homeowner reported that the Nanteos Cup was missing.

• Artifact was stolen from Weston-under-Penyard in Herefordshire 
• Raiders targeted the property after the elderly homeowner was hospitalized  
• Was previously held at the Nanteos Mansion near Aberystwyth in Wales 
• Water drunk from the wooden chalice is said to have healing powers

Police have launched a major investigation after a wooden chalice said to be the ‘Holy Grail’ was stolen from an elderly woman’s house. Officers were called to the rural village of Weston-under-Penyard, Herefordshire, after the homeowner reported the Nanteos Cup missing. The artifact had been loaned to the seriously ill woman and is believed to have been taken when she visited a hospital. 

Missing: Legend has it that the wooden chalice was carried over to Britain by Joseph of Arimathea, years after the crucifixion of Christ

The search for the artifact was the plot for the 1989 blockbuster, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, starring Harrison Ford. But now West Mercia Police officers have been tasked with finding the wooden bowl themselves, which went missing last Monday. A spokesman for West Mercia Police said: ‘West Mercia Police are investigating a burglary at a home in Under Penyard. ‘The home was broken into between 9.30am on Monday 7 July and 9.30am on Monday 14 July. ‘A wooden cup/challis, known as the Nanteos Cup, has been reported as stolen from the home. It is dark wood cup and was kept in a blue velvet bag.  Rumour has it Joseph of Arimathea, a revered Catholic figure later founded a religious settlement at Glastonbury and the ‘grail’ then came into the safekeeping of monks. Over the centuries the mysterious wooden bowl was said to have magical healing powers. It was held for years at Nantoes Mansion near Aberystwyth in Wales until the last occupants of the estate, the Powell family, left in the 1950s. In later years it came into the ownership of the Steadman family, who kept it in a bank vault in Wales.The cup was stolen by burglars after being temporarily loaned to a seriously ill woman connected to the family.  The Holy Grail has been a issue debate among historians and theologians – with some religious figures claiming the grail is actually the Holy Chalice, used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper.

The cup was featured on Channel 5 documentary The Search for the Holy Grail: The True Story, in which it was examined by the Commissioner for Monuments in Wales.

He concluded it was made from Wych Elm wood, typical of a medieval bowl and was actually at least 500-years-old, making it at least 1,400 years after the crucifixion.

But the cup has a long held reputation for healing, with people drinking from it in the hope of curing their illnesses.

It was last known to have been owned by Mrs Fiona Mirylees, 63, back in 2010, who sent water that had been in the cup to people with life-threatening illnesses.

THE QUEST FOR THE HOLY GRAIL THOUGH THE AGES

The quest for the Holy Grail has taken many forms in literature and films since French poet Chrétien de Troyes referred to it in the late 12th Century. It is sometimes portrayed as a majestic golden cup, but is also considered by some to be a simple a wooden bowl – famously depicted in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. It is generally considered to be the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper and the one used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch his blood as he hung on the cross. In medieval romance, the grail was said to have been brought to Glastonbury in Britain by Joseph of Arimathea and his followers. The search for the vessel then became the principal quest of the knights of King Arthur – including Sir Lancelot and his son Sir Galahad. According to Arthurian literature, Arthur proclaimed that Galahad was the greatest knight after removing the sword from the stone. He was then invited to become a Knight of the Round Table and it was then – after seeing a vision of the Grail at Arthur’s court – that their quest for the chalice began.  At the end of the Middle Ages (around the 15th century) the Grail disappears. However, references to it are revived in the 19th century when medieval history and legend interested writers including Alfred Tennyson. Composer Richard Wagner also referred to the chalice in his opera Parsifal. His work gave the grail new meaning, directly relating it with female fertility.

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