“‘Many years ago, when Henry VIII. was destroying the Monasteries, his servants came into Wales, and hearing of an ancient Monastery among the hills, where only seven old monks remained to guard their treasure, he determined to destroy the Abbey and seize their goods. But the monks were warned by friendly neighbours, and fled by night, bearing their treasure with them. Their journey was long and dangerous for such old men, but they reached the House of Nanteos in safety, and deposited the treasure they had suffered so much to save. One by one the old monks died, and at the point of death he entrusted the treasure to the owner of the house that had sheltered them, until the Church should once more claim its own. But the Church has not yet claimed it, and it is that treasure of the monks which you now see.’
“And again some were satisfied and went away, only wondering that the old monks risked their lives for so small a thing. But those who remained heard further, that the monks had regarded this cup as sacred. Many reasons were given for this: one was that it had a Communion Chalice, another that it possessed miraculous power of healing, but the true reason is told only to the few who press closely for it, and it is thus:—
“Not for its healing properties alone was this cup treasured, not because from it the Monks had received the Communion wine; the cup was older than the Monastery—indeed, the Monastery had been built to receive it; it had been handed down from Abbott to Abbott through the ages, and in each age its secret was told to one or two, that they might guard it the more carefully, for this cup is none other than the one from which our Lord drank at the Last Supper—the cup so eagerly sought for by King Arthur’s knights; found and handled by many, who, because of their blindness were unable to perceive the treasure which was before them; seen and realized by the pure knight Galahad, and then hidden from common touch and sight during the sinful days which followed, but preserved carefully through them all, and powerful even yet to give to those who will wait for it, a faint—alas! very faint—glimpse of Galahad’s vision, and to remind them that even yet ‘The pure in heart shall see God.’”
Just as I am sending this to the press, Mrs. Powell of Nanteos, showed me a letter which she had just received from a noble French lady begging her to send to her in a letter, an handkerchief, or ever a rag, which had been tied round this Healing Cup for 24 hours.
THE STAFF OF ST. CURIG.
In the Church of St. Harmon, Radnorshire, was once preserved a pastoral staff supposed to have belonged to St. Curig, the founder of Llangurig, in Montgomeryshire. Giraldus Cambrensis says that this staff was “covered on all sides with gold and silver, and resembling in its upper part the form of a cross; its efficacy has been proved in many cases, but particularly in the removal of glandular and strenuous swellings.”
PENGLOG TEILO (TEILO’S SKULL.)
A relic known as “Penglog Teilo” is still preserved at Llandilo Llwydiarth, Pembrokeshire. I give a full account of it in my chapter on Holy Wells.