The woman who saved the Holy Grail by stuffing it down a sofa – defying MI6 agents who wanted to steal it away to Britain

The Holy Grail – the cup from which Jesus Christ drank at the Last Supper – is the most venerated relic in the Christian faith.

Over the centuries it has been the center of interest and intrigue. It was moved from country to country, from city to city, from church to church – but ended its journey in the Cathedral of Valencia in Spain, in 1437.

A slew of popes have drank it – and at least four, including Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI – have insisted it’s the real deal; not only Jesus’ cup, but also the vessel used to collect his blood at the crucifixion.

Countless thugs, including Nazi war looters, have tried to steal it, and art dealers and museums have tried to get their hands on it and consign it to their deepest vaults.

It was the greatest quest of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table; it has inspired books, poems, myths, plays, art and of course the comedy film Monty Python And The Holy Grail and an Indiana Jones blockbuster starring Harrison Ford.

Today, the Holy Grail sits in beautiful solitude in its own special chapel in Valencia’s 13th-century Gothic Cathedral. It all turns out to be thanks to a very unlikely protector: an extremely determined middle-aged pianist named Maria Sabina Suey.

During the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, she not only hid the Grail in various places (in a sofa, under a wardrobe and deep in a window frame) to keep it hidden from threatening militias, but she later turned down an offer. seven million pesetas in gold, probably from the Nazis. And this week it emerged that Sabina had even fobbed off a group of MI6 officers who were going to claim the Grail for Britain.

Researcher Dr. Ana Mafe Garcia, president of the International Scientific Committee for Holy Grail Studies, has unearthed new documents and photos – along with memories of what happened from Sabina’s niece.

They reveal that Sabina was heavily pressured by British Secret Service officers to hand over the chalice in exchange for safe passage for her and her family to Britain.

As Dr Mafe puts it: ‘(She) was literally chased by the secret services to take her family by ship to England.

‘However, she was a very progressive woman for her time. She did not trust them and refused the offer. She was very, very steadfast.”

At the time, Spain was in turmoil and local militias were looting churches for anything of value before destroying some for fun. The country was overrun with anarchists, international spies and art looters working for Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler.

The story of Sabina’s involvement begins early on the morning of July 21, 1936, when she and two priests were the only people in the enormous cathedral. She had always had a great interest in the chalice (known in Spanish as the Santo Caliz) and she felt anxious.

The day before, four churches in the area had been burned and a screaming, jeering crowd had gathered that morning. At exactly 9:00 a.m. the priests locked the doors and Sabina took the Grail from the chapel, wrapped it in silk and then in newspapers, put it in her bag and, flanked by the disguised priests, left through a side exit.

She quickly walked back to the nearby house she shared with her widowed mother and sister, where she hid it under a wardrobe. Sabina’s quick thinking has long been celebrated in Spain, where she is seen as the “cleaner who saved the Holy Grail.”

Yet Dr. Mafe wants to make it clear that Sabina, then in her mid-forties, was not a cleaning lady at all, but one of the most talented and accomplished women of her time: a pianist, writer and historian. “She lived in a time when women couldn’t even vote,” says Dr. Mafe. “But she was talented, brave, very intelligent and unafraid.”

Her actions were certainly timely, as just three hours later the cathedral was on fire. The militia soon discovered that the Grail was missing and as rumors spread that Sabina was harboring it, a dozen men, armed with guns and threats, made their first visit to her house and demanded that she hand it over. They continued to visit over the next few months. Later, they visited her brother’s house, where she tucked it in the couch for a while.

Sabina was also approached by art dealers, including one supposedly acting for an American museum; three years earlier, the Museum of Chicago had purchased what it thought was the Holy Grail, only to discover it was a fake, so “Grail fever” was rabid. And then there was an agent for the Nazis who offered seven million pesetas in return.

The answer was always the same. ‘I do not know anything. Nothing. Nothing,” Sabina told them.

She gave the same response when an MI6 agent touched her back as she walked down a busy street in Valencia one day. She turned and looked at a man who said, “Sabina, if you want, we can put you in a safe place, you and your family. We have a ship in Valencia and we can take you to London.’ But only on the condition that the Holy Grail would also come.

Sabina dismissed him and said, “I don’t have it. You can go to my house and search it. I do not have anything. I don’t know where, but it’s hidden.’

This wasn’t too difficult because the Holy Grail is quite small. Disappointing, according to some visitors. Partly because the top part – the plain head of rich, reddish-brown agate – measures only 5.5 by 9.5 cm. The pure gold base, decorated with 28 pearls, two red gemstones and two emeralds, was added centuries later.

But despite its small size, if it really is the grail – and admittedly not every academic is convinced of it, with many other contenders claiming it is the true grail – it is priceless. The only item in the world most likely handled by Jesus Christ.

Initially, it was kept safe by the apostles after the crucifixion, before being taken to Rome by St. Peter, where it was used by the first popes.

In 258 AD, when Pope Sixtus II feared it would be plundered by the Romans in their persecution of Christians, he entrusted it to his deacon Lorenzo, who shipped it to be hidden in his parents’ home in Spain.

Ultimately, it ended up with the Spanish royal family via a local bishop. In 1437 it was given to the Cathedral of Valencia by King Alfonso the Magnanimous as security for a loan to finance his war against Italy.

And there it has remained safely – except for one unfortunate mistake on Good Friday 1744, when Canon Vicente Frigola dropped and broke it during a Holy Week service. Two weeks later he died of remorse.

There have been only two occasions since then when it has not been on display in the special chapel.

First, in 1812, during the Napoleonic siege of Valencia, when it, along with some 200 other treasures belonging to the Crown of Aragon, was taken by boat to Palma, Mallorca, and hidden in the house of a priest until peace came. resumes.

And again in 1936, when Marina Sabina Suey put it in her bag and took it to safety.

There is no doubt that she risked her life. And in the mind of Dr. Mafe he saved the grail. “She was a woman in a man’s world, who stood up to everyone for something she believed in,” she says.

Dr. Mafe is now planning an exhibition of her new material in Valencia in October. But perhaps more importantly, she advocates that Sabina – who never married and had no children – be appropriately honored for her extraordinary role in history.

The Grail’s final resting place during its flight from the Nazis, militias and MI6 was in the window frame of her family’s country house, 45 miles from Valencia, where Sabina hid it on June 20, 1937.

There it remained for almost two years until the end of the Civil War. And on March 30, 1939, the day of the liberation of Valencia, Sabina traveled to her parental home, dug deep into the wall, picked up the Holy Chalice, put it in her bag and put it back on the wall later that day. on display in his chapel.