The Grail: Sacra Moneta
by
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A Note on the Title, "The Grail: Sacra Moneta."
What a jarring cacophony of words! Surely, any link between the Grail and money, between the sublime and base lucre, constitutes an oxymoron offensive to our sensibilities. Yet here it is, "The Grail: Sacra Moneta." How can the Holy Grail find fellowship with most unholy money? Didn't Jesus flog the moneychangers from the temple? Hasn't the Grail historically been the visible sign of spiritual perfection?
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About the Book
Our tale of the Grail opens in the decidedly austere domain of a university archive but then expands to include a journey to far more exotic locations in Switzerland, Scotland, Ireland, Cuba, and finally the United States. Unlike some accounts of the Grail, this one adheres to a vision of the Grail as something quite tangible and real that has the potential to transform lives, to heal the sick, to feed the hungry, to comfort the weary. In this journey of discovery, an enigmatic financier funds the research of three academics who peruse ancient documents to trace the journey of the Grail westward from the Byzantine Empire to Switzerland, From Zurich our quest takes us to Lothian Scotland, from there to Kilkenny Castle. From Ireland, our researchers and their patron visit Havana on yet another mission. Finally their work takes them back to the United States and the City of Brotherly Love, where their research ends but not their interest in each other. The book ends with the union of two lovers.
About the Author
B. Patrick Conley, chief archivist of the non-existent, fully unaccredited Sandhomen University shares the core values of his beloved aetherial alma mater: unrecognized, unpretentious, unprestigious. If you look for the "un" in university, you'll find Sandhomen. The motto of Sandhomen "Per Insana ad Astra" reflects the plot machinations of the stranger than fiction opus, "The Grail: Sacra Moneta." In the quest for the Grail, the chief archivist, Patrick Conley has translated and studied ancient manuscripts and inteviewed contemporary experts in the Grail and in related Arthurian studies.