I had the privilege of representing the Library again this year in the Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast. This special event, which is attended by members of parliaments from across Europe, church and chapel leaders and representatives of a number of Christian organisations, is held each year on the first Thursday after St. David's Day in the Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay, with a reception in the Senedd the previous evening. The Library provides an exhibition for the two events.
The theme of this year's Prayer Breakfast was "Hope for the Nation". The centrepiece of the exhibition was the Nanteos Cup. The exact origin of the Cup is a mystery, but it seems that the relic came into the possession of the Powell family of Nanteos from Strata Florida Abbey during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. According to one tradition, the Nanteos Cup is the Holy Grail, the Cup from which Christ and his disciples drank at the Last Supper. Since the 19th Century it has been claimed that the Cup possesses a supernatural power to heal. The Cup still belongs to the Powell family but is now on permanent display in the Library.
The exhibition also included two Bibles from the Library's collections. One was our best copy of the 1588 Bible, the first edition of the whole Bible in Welsh, which was given by our founding President Sir John Williams, along with thousands of other books and manuscripts. The other was a facsimile of the 1611 King James Bible, twelve copies of which were printed last year in fine binding by Oxford University Press to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III, the first copy being used in the service in Westminster Abbey. This complemented the Cross of Wales, which was made for the Coronation and was on display at the Prayer Breakfast.
The Salvation Army is celebrating its 150th anniversary in Wales this year, and their band and singers performed at the reception. To mark this anniversary, a number of Welsh and English items from the Library's collections about the history of the movement were included in the exhibition.
After I had given a presentation about the exhibition, a copy of the Salem painting, purchased by the Library in 2019, was presented to Mark Drakeford on his retirement as First Minister for Wales. The Library received as donations a set of early periodicals from the Salvation Army, a newly-published prayer book from the Church in Wales, a set of three DVDs entitled Welsh awakenings: the story of God's work in Wales, and Welsh and English copies of the new booklet Hope for the Nation.
Timothy Cutts
Rare Books Librarian
Category: Article