The Holy Grail Secrets and Community in Medieval Literature

These belong specifically to the keeper of the Grail since Joseph transmits them to Hebron when he hands over the cup. Boron himself speaks thanks to the authority of a Great Book he possesses in which the "secrets of the Grail" are written. This role also appears in Chrétien de Troyes: "that you bring back within the term of one year and no more the lance from whose weeping point falls like a tear the clearest blood and it is written that a day will come when the entire kingdom of Logres, once a land of ogres, will be destroyed by that lance"

Navigatio Sancti Brendani (Latin text from the 8th century later reworked several times, in verse and prose, in the romance literatures of the Middle Ages), which merges the Irish tradition of immrama with Christian hagiographic themes. There is indeed an episode in the Navigatio that seems to already announce the advent of the Grail against the typically Celtic background of a crystal column rising from the sea. After circumnavigating the column for four days, Brendan and his companions indeed glimpse inside a niche a chalice and a paten. Immediately the man of God ordered the brothers to celebrate the divine office and then to restore their bodies because since they had seen that column they had had no time either to eat or drink. And note how even the vision of this chalice is linked to the presence of food and drinks.

The tale has parallels with the story Prophetic Ecstasy of the Phantom, in which King Conn guided by a knight arrives at the dwelling of the god Lug who will reveal to him the duration of his reign. Next to Lug there is a beautiful young woman, who after serving food to Lug, asks "To whom should I serve the cup". The God replies: "To Conn". Then they disappear leaving the king in possession of the cup and other sacred objects.

• COMMUNITY OF THE GRAIL: The transmission of these secrets, as well as the transmission of the Grail is a transmission independent and parallel from the apostolic succession of the Church of Peter, passes through Joseph of Arimathea, a disciple particularly beloved by Jesus and to whom he revealed everything. The community seems to have a precise identity and even a rite or "service of the Grail". It represents like a church with a special mission involving not so much hermits or monks as knight-priests (Joseph of Arimathea himself appears as a knight who served Pilate for a certain time).

• HISTORY OF SALVATION AND THE 3 TABLES: The last extremely important aspect that appears with Robert de Boron is the role of the Grail in the history of Salvation, a metaphysical history never narrated by mortal man. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ and his transmission of the Grail to Joseph of Arimathea has initiated the History of Salvation which will be structured in 3 times in relation to the 3 persons of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit and which can be related to the times expressed by Joachim of Fiore as time of law, time of grace and time of even more grace). There will be 3 keepers of the Grail Joseph, Hebron and descendant of Alan and 3 tables must be instituted: the TABLE OF THE SUPPER, that of the Last Supper instituted by Jesus to transmit the Grail to Joseph of Arimathea; the TABLE OF THE GRAIL that instituted by Joseph of Arimathea to transmit the Grail to Hebron and the ROUND TABLE that instituted by Merlin which will lead to the fulfillment of salvation through Perceval.