Archeologist says Holy Grail is in Rome

Alfredo Barbagallo said ancient records show the cup is buried in a chamber beneath the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, one of the seven churches Christian pilgrims used to visit when they came to Rome, The (London) Telegraph said Thursday.

The archeologist said he spent two years studying medieval iconography inside the basilica, and a description of the chamber in a guide to the catacombs written in 1938 by a Capuchin friar named Giuseppe Da Bra.

He said the cup, given the name the Holy Grail in the Middle Ages, disappeared in A.D. 258 after a deacon named Lorenzo -- with whom Pope Sixtus V reportedly entrusted treasures of the early Church -- was martyred.

A Vatican spokesman said no decision has been made on the possibility of opening the catacombs, the newspaper said.

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