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The dominating story or bundle of stories in England is the story of the Holy Grail. Most people now living if they recognize the name probably connect it to the English comedians, Monty Python, who have had a lot of fun with it. But there is an older, wider, serious audience, and that audience knows the legend of the Holy Grail as a vast tapestry of history, legend, myth, folklore, religion, and devout hope.

The story begins at the Last Supper or the Crucifixion of Jesus or both. In the first case the Grail is the cup that Jesus held at the Last Supper when he said it was his blood poured out for the disciples. In the second it is the vessel that caught some of the blood of the crucified Jesus. The two became one as the story grew.

Joseph of Arimethia took the Grail with him when he went to England after the Resurrection. He established a shrine for the Grail at Glastonbury and the guardians of the Grail watched over it until the last one sinned and the Grail disappeared.

In time the Knights of the Round Table set out into the wilderness on the quest for the Holy Grail, but they were unsuccessful until Sir Galahad, who “had the strength of ten because his heart was pure,” discovered the Grail but he soon thereafter ascended to heaven. No one has seen the Grail since though a few shrines and churches in Europe have claimed to posses it.

The Grail has become also a symbol of some final goal, and people will talk of some ultimate achievement in some area as the Holy Grail of this or that. For example, the Grand Unified Theory has become the Holy Grail of physics. For many mortal men “joy withe wisdom” is still a Holy Grail, and some for a moment have glimpsed that from afar. The rest may search for and sometimes find our Grail or, more or less content, wander aimlessly in the wilderness of life.