Holy Grail

The Mystery of the Marian Chalice

Like the Holy Grail, the Marian Chalice was a vessel that was said to have held the blood of Christ and was believed to have been hidden in Britain.  These similarities between the two stories suggest that they both had the same origin.  However, there is also another relationship between the two vessels.  Like the Grail, the Marian Chalice was linked with the story of King Arthur and his knights.  In the Arthurian story, the Grail is kept in a secret chapel in a fortress called the White Castle, in a place known as the White Town.  In the thirteenth century an English knight called Fulk Fitz Warine claimed to posses the Marian Chalice.  Although he did not specifically refer to it as the Holy Grail, his historical claim to have owed it may have inspired the Arthurian Grail romances of the Middle Ages.  Fulk’s castle, built from light-colored stone, was known as the White Castle, and the town where the castle still stands is called Whittington – the old English for ‘White Town’.

The White Castle at Whittington

The ruins of Whittington Chapel

  

In the early 1200s Fulk Fitz Warine died; shortly after, his family was forced to leave the castle, and over many centuries it fell into disrepair.  What became of the Marian Chalice remained one of England’s unsolved historical mysteries. Much of the White Castle still survives today in the village of Whittington in the country of Shropshire in central England, and the ruined walls of the chapel where the relic was kept remain to be seen.  It was here in the 1990s that Graham Phillips began his search for the lost Marian Chalice. The Whittington relic said to be the Marian Chalice disappeared until the mid nineteenth century when one of Fulk’s descendents, a Shropshire writer named Thomas Wright, claimed that the cup had been handed down to him by his ancestors.  It was described as a small stone cup made from green alabaster, also known as onyx.  Only one depiction of it still survives, in an illustration made by Wright’s friend and contemporary artist Arthur Mede.  In a biblical scene showing Mary Magdalene washing the feet of Jesus, beside her on the floor is the scent jar which she is said to have used to collect the blood of Christ.  It seems to be about three inches tall, shaped like an eggcup with a lid.   Rightly or wrongly, Thomas Wright was in no doubt that this cup was the original Holy Grail. In 1855, with no children to hand it on to, Thomas Wright decided to hide the cup for posterity.  Presumably seeing himself as some kind of latter-day Merlin, Wright claimed to have left an elaborate trail of clues which he said led to its hiding place.  These were alluded to in a poem he published in 1855.  Called Sir Gawain and the Red Knight, it tells the story of Arthur’s knight Gawain’s quest to discover the Holy Grail, which he identifies with the Marian Chalice.  The story is set in Wright’s native Shropshire, beginning at the White Castle at Whittington and ending with Gawain finding the Grail at the Red Knight’s castle called the Red Castle.  This was another historical building, some ten miles east of Whittington in the grounds of the country estate of Hawkstone Park. At the end of the poem, once he has drunk from the Grail, Gawain decides to hide it again in a new location.  It is not revealed where he hides the cup, and the story ends cryptically with Gawain standing on the battlements of the Red Castle, looking out over the landscape and contemplating its hiding place. Was the Marian Chalice really hidden somewhere in Shropshire countryside in 1855?  Was it still there to be found?  Did Thomas Wright’s poem really hold a secret message to reveal where it was?  As no one seemed to have solved the riddle, in the 1990s - almost a century and a half after the poem was published - Graham Phillips decided to investigate. On the opening page of the book in which the poem was originally published, there is an illustration showing the White Castle at Whittington and a cryptic quote by an anonymous British essayist: If my readers should at any time remark that I am particularly dull, they may be assured there is a design under it. The design “under” the quote was two lines of Roman numerals at the bottom of the page which in modern numbers were: As they appeared to have no purpose or obvious relevance to the poem, Graham decided that these numbers may have formed some kind of code.  But if it was a code, how could it be deciphered?  After much research, Graham concluded that the final verse of the poem held the vital key to the code.  On the last page of the book there was an illustration of the Red Castle and under it the last enigmatic verse which read: The Shepherd’s Songs to guide the way, The horn was blown, The treasure lay. Could this mean that the “Shepherd’s Songs” would guide the way to the treasure – the Marian Chalice?  If so, what were the mysterious Shepherd’s Songs? After following many dead-end avenues of research Graham eventually hit upon the idea that the Shepherd’s Songs could refer to the Psalms of the Bible.  The Old Testament Psalms are ancient religious songs that were said to have been written by the Israelite king David who was, according to the Bible, a simple shepherd before becoming the Israelite hero by slaying the Philistine giant Goliath.  The Psalms were indeed “shepherd’s songs” and they were preserved in a book that was the most widely available book in the world.  Had Thomas Wright decided to use verses from the Psalms to somehow lead to where he had hidden the Marian Chalice?  Perhaps this was the key to the mysterious numerals.  If so, then the first line might indicate the number of the Psalm (each of the 150 Psalms are ascribed a number in the Bible) and the second line could refer to the verse in the relevant Psalm. The first number in the top line was 132, and the first number in the lower line was 17.   Did this, Graham wondered, mean that the 17th verse of Psalm 132 was the first clue in the search for the treasure.  The second number on the top line was 31, and the first number of the second line was 3.  This might mean that the second clue was the 3rd verse of Psalm 31 – and so on. When Graham consulted the Bible and read the first possible clue, he was sure he was on to something. Psalm 132, verse 17 reads:  There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. It seemed beyond coincidence that the verse should refer to the shepherd David and a horn ‑ the last verse of Wright’s poem included the line “the horn was blown”.  Was Wright assuring his reader that he or she was on the right track?  The reference to the lamp in the Psalm verse may even have been used to indicate a guiding light, the following verses perhaps? The second numbers in the sequences are 31 and 3: Psalm 31, verse 3 reads:  For thou art my rock and my fortress: therefore for my name's sake lead me, and guide me. Again the reference seemed to correlate with a search – “lead me, and guide me” ‑ but where? The verse included mention of a rock and a fortress and in Wright’s poem Gawain stood on the battlements of the Red Castle.  The Red Castle is a fortress built into the rocks.  Is this what the conundrum was referring to?  Graham decided to go to the Red Castle to see if the next Psalm verse might be a reference to some other landmark in the vicinity. The Red Castle is so named because of the red brick from which it is built.  It is a strange circular tower built into the side of a cliff during the Middle Ages.  Graham was certain that he was right about the mysterious numbers in Thomas Wright’s book being references to Psalm verses in the Bible.  On a sunny February morning, Graham first stood on top of this almost forgotten, overgrown building and consulted what appeared to be the next clue.  If his reasoning was correct, it was Psalm 61, verse 2, the final line of which read:  Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. From the Red Castle there is only one higher location in the immediate vicinity: a towering rock called the White Cliff which directly overlooks the castle about a quarter of a mile to the west.   On top of the White Cliff is the arch of a ruined chapel, built in the eighteenth century by the owner of the Hawkstone Park estate, one Rowland Hill.  Like the Red Castle, it would have been there in Thomas Wright’s time a century later.  Surely, this had to be the place the verse had been chosen to allude to.   Making his way to the top of the White Cliff, Graham stood beneath the arch of the ruined chapel and read the next Bible passage:  Psalm 102, verse 19 which begins: For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary. By now, there could no longer be any doubt that Graham had cracked Thomas Wright’s code.  Each verse fitted perfectly with each new location.  “The height of his sanctuary” – what better way to describe a chapel on the top of a cliff? The verse implied that Graham should look down and below the arch was a path, leading to an entrance cut into the cliff beneath the chapel.  The entrance led into a maze of tunnels and chambers cut deep inside the cliff.  They were clearly artificially constructed passageways, leading to a series of dark chambers where there are decorated pillars and arches, all cut from the living rock.  No one knows how old they are, who made them, or why.  One theory suggests that they were originally copper mines built by the Romans almost two thousand years ago.  If they were, someone at a later time went to a great deal of trouble to turn them into elaborate, possibly ceremonial caves. Graham emerged from the tunnel on completely the other side of the hill, where a narrow gorge cut its way downwards through a sandstone cliff. Reading the next Bible passage, he decided that he should follow the gorge into the valley below.  Psalm 104, verse 8 read: They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. He had already gone “up by the mountains”, so he followed the gorge and the valley at the bottom until it reached the village of Hodnet, some two miles away.  But what was the “the place which thou hast founded for them”?   Remarkably, the next four verses seemed to be telling Graham exactly what to do Psalm 118, verse 19:  Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them. Graham entered the church. Psalm 142, verse 4:  I looked on my right hand and beheld. Graham turned to his right. Psalm 123, verse 1:  Unto thee lift I up mine eyes. He looked up to find himself staring up at a stained-glass window depicting the four gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Psalm 118, verse 22:  The stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the corner. The head cornerstone was directly above the extreme right of the figures in the stained-glass window: the image said to depict the gospel writer St. John.  The penultimate verse seemed to confirm that this was exactly were Graham should look. Psalm 119, verse 114:  Thou art my hiding place and my shield. Had the Marian Chalice, an ancient holy relic believed to have been the Holy Grail, really been hidden in Hodnet parish church? The last reference in the list seemed very much to suggest so. Psalm 116, verse 13:  I will take the cup of salvation. Graham spent a great deal of time having the corner of the church around the window thoroughly examined with scientific equipment to see if anything was hidden there.  Nevertheless, the results proved negative.  It seemed that if anything had been secreted in the south-east corner of Hodnet Church it had long ago been found. Ultimately, however, Graham hit upon a new line of investigation.  He discovered that the window had been designed, donated and installed in the church by none other than Thomas Wright – the very man who had set the clues – in 1855, the same year that he had published his enigmatic poem.  Perhaps it was the window itself that was important.  Maybe this was a final clue that the code had been leading to, rather than the hiding place itself.  If so, what did it mean? Suddenly, Graham saw something that struck a familiar chord.  Above the heads of the men depicted in the window were images of the Christian symbols for the four gospels they are accredited with writing – an angel, a lion, a bull and an eagle.   These were exactly the same figures represented by the statues that had stood in the labyrinth of caves at Hawkstone Park.  Following Wright’s trail of clues, the seeker had to pass through the cavern where the statues were.  Surely this was no coincidence.  Was this Thomas Wright’s final clue?  That the Marian Chalice had been hidden in one of these four statues?  But which one? Each of the Gospel writers was depicted holding the book they had written but one of them – St. John - also held a chalice.  It was a chalice – the Marian Chalice – that the clues were apparently leading to.  St. John was the figure in the very corner of the church and above him was the cornerstone seemingly alluded to in one of the Psalm verses.  Directly beneath the cornerstone and above St. John’s head was the image of the symbol representing his gospel – the eagle.  Was the Marian Chalice hidden in the eagle statue in the White Cliff caves? An eagle would certainly be an apt image to associate with the Grail, as in the King Arthur story, Merlin - who knew the secret of the Grail’s hiding place - is said to have become an eagle. Indeed, the name Merlin comes from an old British word meaning “The Eagle”.   Furthermore, the figure that was supposed to represent St. John appeared to be a woman.  The three other figures were bearded but the “John” figure was clean shaven.  What’s more, it seemed to be wearing a woman’s gown and even appeared to have breasts.  Could the figure have been a thinly-disguised Mary Magdalene?  Graham returned to the caves to examine the eagle statue.  It was completely solid and carved from stone, so there was no way anything could have been hidden inside.  However, it had once stood on a pedestal so something may have been placed inside that.  The problem was that this had been destroyed in 1920 when a local businessman named Walter Langham decided to buy the statues from the landowner to have them erected in his garden. When he tried to remove them from the caves, they proved too heavy and the ropes broke. The eagle statue was badly damaged and the base was completely smashed.  However, Graham discovered something in a contemporary guide book that was both exciting and disheartening.  When the base broke apart, it was found to be partly hollow and inside something was discovered which was described as “an interesting curio” – “a small green cup made from stone”.  This had to have been the artifact thought to be the Marian Chalice that Thomas Wright had hidden.  This seemed to prove that Graham had successfully solved Wright’s cryptic trail of clues.  However, completely by accident someone had already found the artifact decades before.  As far as Graham could discover, Walter Langham had no idea what the object was.  Had he sold it or thrown it away?  Was it lost forever? After further research, Graham discovered that Langham had considered the cup to be an interesting oddity because of the unusual circumstances in which it had been found.  He gave up trying to move the statues but luckily he had kept the cup.  When Graham traced and contacted Langham’s descendants, he was delighted to discover that it was still in their possession.    In fact, they had it stored away with junk in the attic of their home in the English town of Rugby in the county of Warwickshire.  Nevertheless, like their ancestor, they had absolutely no idea what it was. The artifact turned out to be a small stone vessel made from green alabaster, about the size and shape of an eggcup. Although there is no way of knowing whether it was the original chalice found by the Empress Helena in Jerusalem in 323 BC, it seems almost certainly to be the one possessed by Fulk Fitz Warine and kept at the White Castle in Whittington during the Middle Ages and passed on down to Thomas Wright who hid it in the 1850s.  It closely matches the only known depiction of it in Arthur Mede’s illustration, except that it now has no lid. It has been analyzed by the British Museum who identified it as a Roman ointment or scent jar dating from the first century AD.  Although it does not match the traditional representations of the Holy Grail, it does date from the actual time of Jesus.  Furthermore, it is an alabaster scent vessel, which is exactly what the Chalice of Magdalene is said to have been.  It is just possible, therefore, that the fascinating trail of clues had led to the cup which once held the blood of Christ - a cup that in legend became known as the Holy Grail.   More History on the Grail The Lost Holy Grail Holy Grail at the Last Supper (Fg. 2-2) Known as the cup Jesus drank from at the Last Supper, the sacred Holy Grail is arguably the most sought after religious artifact next to the Ark of the Covenant. Legends of the Grail's existence have been steadily fueled over the centuries by ongoing quests to locate it. Some have even speculated the term Holy Grail was really a metaphor and doesn't refer to a physical object. Still, many have searched in hope they may have a chance to hold the most divine of sacred relics. Popular theories base the Grail's whereabouts to be secretive, passed down from generation to generation, changing hands only when the time is necessary. Officially endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church, The Knights Templar have long been suspected of knowing where the Holy Grail is kept. Rumors have placed the Knights in key locations during the Crusades with individuals claiming to have witnessed Templar digging and searching for holy relics while they occupied the Temple Mount. These stories have long tied the Templar to relics like the Holy Grail, Ark of the Covenant and the Shroud of Turin. Theories suggest that when the Holy Land was lost, many Templar faced persecution and several went into hiding along with the relics they were said to be protecting. Its believed the Order's efforts to keep the relics a secret were very extensive, to the point of using cryptic messages in communication and elaborately constructed buildings to hide them in. Many stories about the quest for the Holy Grail often involve decoding signs and messages left behind by the Knights Templar. Prominent structures such as Rosslyn Chapel and Oak Island are believed to be secretly housing the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant. Even though either location would indeed make an excellent hiding place, conclusive historical evidence is lacking to place either relic to those locations. Then again, many relics and valuable items have been buried for protection in the past and it is not out of the question to think those hiding the Holy Grail would have worked extra diligently to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.