Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch is a fictional weapon from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Although a minor gag in the film, the Holy Hand Grenade (as it is more commonly known by dropping its historic namesake Antioch) has gone on to be one of the most frequently referred to elements of Monty Python humour.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch was a "sacred relic" carried by Franciscan monk Brother Maynard and is used near the film's conclusion to destroy a killer rabbit that blocks the path of King Arthur and his hapless Knights Errant. Although unusually ornate in design (its appearance based on a type of royal Regalia known as a Globus cruciger, specifically the Sovereign's Orb of the United Kingdom), the Holy Hand Grenade functions like any other Hand grenade.

Particularly important is the counting to three after the pulling of the triggering pin (the surmounted cross), complicated by King Arthur's mental block on counting. The instructions for its use are in the fictitious "Book of Armaments" ("Chapter 2, verses 9-21"):

"And the LORD spake, saying, first shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, is counted, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."

Cultural references

• The Worms series of computer games features a weapon called the holy hand grenade, which looks rather like the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and is distinguished by the fact that unlike the other types of grenade in the game, which have variable-length fuses that can be controlled by the player, it is equipped only with a three-second time fuse that only starts once the holy hand grenade has come to rest on the ground, in reference to King Arthur's mental block on counting. It's notable that the weapon's explosion is accompanied by a chorus singing Hallelujah in the style of Handel's Messiah.
• In the computer game Fallout 2, the player may, when travelling through the wasteland, come across a cave with a large number of knights near its entrance, one of which asks the player whether he has found the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. Inside the cave there is a foul beast, an allusion to the Killer Rabbit.
• It is in the Bard's Tale series of games.
• It is in the 2005 version of the Codex Black Templars for the tabletop miniature wargame game of Warhammer 40,000.
• It is in Duke Nukem: Time to Kill as a grenade that bounces and follows the opponent, giving substantial damage when exploding. It has the same design as the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
• It is in the American TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Grenades containing Holy Water, designed to combat vampires, were called "holy hand grenades".