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©Spanish Center for Sindonology, Valencia, Spain/From Janice Bennett, St. Laurence And the Holy Grail

A slightly better case can be made for the Santo Caliz (Holy Chalice) in the Cathedral of Valencia, Spain. Legend has it that the agate upper part of the cup was used at the Last Supper and was later brought to Rome by Peter; there, during Christian persecutions in the third century, it supposedly passed into the hands of a Spanish soldier. The Caliz is still venerated as a holy relic and was even used by Pope John Paul II in a mass in 1982. Although the mount and base are certainly medieval, the upper agate cup could have been made in the Roman period. But there is no way to date it—or know its origins—with any certainty.