Chalice of the Knights Templar
The cup of a carpenter that heals and grants long life, so long as it never crosses the great seal.
The Holy Grail is the object of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, in which Indiana searches for his father, a Holy Grail scholar kidnapped by the Nazis. It is kept in a temple in Hatay, in a room with many cups and an ancient knight, who explains that only one cup is the true Grail.
Quick Facts
- Character/subject
- The Holy Grail (Chalice)
- First appears
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Lore & Background
The Grail Knight, the youngest of three brothers who set out to find the Grail, drank from the cup of Christ during the Crusades and lives in a side chamber of the Temple of the Sun. Walter Donovan drinks from a false grail chosen for him by Elsa and dies by rapid aging; Indy picks a pewter grail, the cup of a carpenter, and is told he has "chosen wisely", and a drink from it heals his mortally wounded father. The knight warns that whoever takes the Grail past the great seal forfeits immortality; Elsa ignores the warning, setting off a cataclysm in which she falls to her death.
Reader's Guide
The temple is guarded by traps, which Indy overcomes with the help of his father's diary, while a separate order, the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, protects the Grail's secret outside it. Lucas had suggested giving the Grail healing powers and the ability to grant immortality.
More in Artifacts & Relics
Elsewhere in Indiana Jones
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced