When The Chalice of Magdalene was first published around the world it created uproar in the Vatican that involved the Pope himself.

When Graham’s book was translated and published around the world in 1995 it began ecclesiastical uproar that had to be resolved by the Pope himself. When The European newspaper broke the story that Graham Phillips had found what he believed to be the Holy Grail in England, Rocco Zingaro, the grand master of a group claiming to be descended from the crusader Knights Templar, held a press conference in Rome to announce that he already had the Grail. He and his followers had not intended to unveil the cup to the world until the new millennium, but the publication of Graham’s book had forced them to reveal their secret five years early.

“The Grail that was found in England last week is not the real one,” he told reporters. “There are more than twenty such phony Grails around the world.” He was certainly right about other Grails, phony or not. Within a week, religious establishments across Europe were falling all over themselves to produce evidence that they had the real Grail, including Genona, Lucca and Tuscany cathedrals.

Immediately the Vatican was inundated with calls from the media asking for their position on the dispute, and on 6 September a Vatican spokesman announced that the Pope himself was considering the various claims and would make a statement by the end of the week. The following Friday he did. Apparently, his official position was that none of these Grails were the real one as the true Holy Grail was in Valencia Cathedral.

Although this was no endorsement of the Marian Chalice or of Zingaro’s cup, it is interesting that this was the first time ever that the Vatican had publicly voiced its position on the existence of the Holy Grail, let alone tell the world that the Church already had it - and all because of Graham’s book.

Incidentally, the cup in Valencia Cathedral is said to have been the cup of the Last Supper, which Graham never claimed to have found. The Marian Chalice was said to have been the cup used by Mary Magdalene to collect drops of Christ’s blood when he appeared to her after the Crucifixion. The whole argument in The Chalice of Magdalene was that it was Mary’s cup, and not the cup of the Last Supper, that inspired the story of the Grail quest in the Arthurian stories of the Middle Ages. It seems that someone in the Vatican had not bothered to read it.

For rival Grails see > Grail Candidates 

Rocco Zingaro with the cup he believes to be the true Holy Grail.