In Magdalene: Heart of the Grail, Welsh author Dawn Elizabeth Higgins follows Mary Magdalene through early Christian writings, medieval Welsh manuscripts, sacred genealogies and the families connected to the Grail romances.

The journey begins in Wales, where traditions of Joseph of Arimathea and the Virgin’s family intersect with accounts of British ancestry. Medieval narratives place women, blood and inherited guardianship at the heart of the Grail’s mystery.

Following patrons, marriages and religious foundations, Higgins traces connections across Wales, France and the Holy Land. Royal women, noble households and monastic communities emerge as custodians of land, knowledge and sacred memory. Their relationships bring the Grail stories into the world of the Knights Templar, whose trials and suppression culminate in the death of Jacques de Molay.

From Bethany and the courts of Champagne to Rosslyn Chapel, recurring images of hearts, vessels, flowers and bees give the investigation another language to explore.

Rooted in Higgins’s Welsh upbringing and her encounters with historic places and manuscripts, this nonfiction work brings documentary history, medieval belief and symbolism together. It examines the possibility that the Grail’s language of blood and hereditary keeping points towards a living continuation associated with Mary Magdalene.

What, across the centuries, was being entrusted to them?

About the Author

Dawn Elizabeth Higgins is a Welsh author and independent researcher. For more than six years she has pursued research across Egypt, France, Italy and Britain, from the Great Pyramid, Abydos and Luxor to Rome and the Vatican, Rosslyn Chapel and Glastonbury. She has been granted access to rare collections, handling ancient papyri and medieval Welsh manuscripts, and was invited to a private viewing of Leonardo da Vinci's and Michelangelo's drawings of the Holy Family in the Royal Collection. Working from archives and sites in the field, she brings documentary history and firsthand investigation together in her writing.

Her published research papers explore the Shroud of Turin and the ancient pyramids of Baka and Giza. A former British and Welsh international track athlete, she also established an award-winning fashion blog recognised by Cosmopolitan and Company magazines.