Stone Church Artifact: Holy Chalice (Santo Cáliz) - Valencia, Spain

Holy Chalice

(Santo Cáliz)

Valencia

 Cataluña, Spain

N 39° 28.502 W 000° 22.507

Short Description: 

An agate chalice reputed to be the Holy Grail from which Jesus drank from at the Last Supper is located in the Chapel of the Holy Chalice in Valencia Cathedral, Valencia. Spain.

Long Description:

In the Chapel of the Holy Chalice (Santo Caliz), above and behind an altar framed by an elaborate stone frontispiece and set behind bulletproof glass, is a 17 cm high by 9 cm wide, highly polished, translucent, dark red-brown agate chalice. Other features were added later, including an alabaster base, gold stem, and an assortment of jewels. The base measures 14.5 cm wide by 9.7 cm high.

The relic part is presumed to be of Alexandrian origin which archaeologists date to 100 BC to 50 BC. According to a paper published by Professor Antonio Beltrán in 1960, “El Santo Cáliz de la Catedral de Valencia” (“The Holy Chalice of the Valencia Cathedral”). The authenticity of the chalice was never refuted.

The first explicit reference to the Chalice of Valencia comes from an inventory of the treasury of the monastery of San Juan de la Peña drawn up by Don Carreras Ramírez, Canon of Zaragoza, on December 14, 1134. In the inventory the Chalice is described as the vessel in which "Christ Our Lord consecrated his blood" ("En un arca de marfil está el Cáliz en que Cristo N. Señor consagró su sangre, el cual envió S. Lorenzo a su patria, Huesca"). Both Pope John Paul II, in November 1982, and Pope Benedict XVI, in July 2006, celebrated mass with the Holy Chalice.