The Holy Grail and UFOs at Montserrat
Why do people associate the Holy Grail with Montserrat? A photograph takes us as far as the abbey door. For what happened inside, we have the account of the monk who accompanied the visitor.
A question in the abbey library
The association was already familiar to readers of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. Its entry for Montserrat says that medieval German legends placed the Grail castle here. That tells us where the stories were set, not where the chalice was kept.
On 23 October 1940 Heinrich Himmler, head of the Nazi SS, visited the abbey. Memòria.cat reproduces a photograph of his arrival and recounts the testimony of Andreu Ripol, a German-speaking monk. Ripol recalled that Himmler asked to see documents about the Grail in the library. The monk told him the abbey had none.
Watching the night sky from El Bruc
In 2011 a crew from RTVE’s Crónicas joined skywatchers who used to meet at the Hotel Bruc on the eleventh of each month. The organiser, Luis José Grifol, attached particular significance to the number eleven. The crew spent hours watching the sky and found no evidence of extraterrestrial craft that night.
UFO stands for unidentified flying object. It describes something an observer could not identify, without explaining where it came from. If you are planning a visit from Can Robira, bear in mind that the report describes a past gathering, not an event on the abbey’s calendar today.
The light in the story of the Santa Cova
In a separate religious tradition, shepherds saw a light on the mountain before the image of the Virgin was discovered. To follow the story to the cave and learn about the sculptures along the path, see The mysteries of Montserrat Monastery.