The Holy Lance, also called the Spear of Longinus (named after Saint Longinus), the Spear of Destiny, or the Holy Spear, is said to be the lance that pierced the side of Jesus during his crucifixion on the cross. Like other tools from the Passion of Jesus, the lance is only briefly mentioned in the Christian Bible. However, it later became the subject of stories and traditions in the medieval church. Objects claimed to be the lance began appearing as early as the 6th century, originally in Jerusalem. By the Late Middle Ages, pieces of the lance (or parts of it) were reported to exist across Europe. Some of these items are still kept today.
Holy Lance relics were often used in religious ceremonies. At times, some were believed to bring victory in battles. For example, Henry the Fowler’s lance was thought to have helped him win the Battle of Riade. Crusaders believed finding a Holy Lance helped them end the Siege of Antioch successfully.
In modern times, at least four major relics are claimed to be the Holy Lance or parts of it. These are located in Rome, Vienna, Vagharshapat, and Antioch. The most famous relic is in Vienna, decorated with a special gold cuff. This version of the lance is displayed publicly with the Imperial Regalia at the Hofburg.
Biblical references
The lance (Greek: λόγχη, lonkhē) is mentioned in the Gospel of John but not in the other Gospel books. The Gospel describes how the Romans planned to break Jesus' legs, a practice used to speed up death during crucifixion called crurifragium. Jesus' followers wanted to ensure he died before the Sabbath began at sunset on Friday so he could be buried quickly, as burials are not allowed on the Sabbath. Just before breaking his legs, they saw that Jesus was already dead and that there was no need to break his legs ("and no bone will be broken"). To confirm his death, a Roman soldier stabbed him in the side.
The Gospel of John does not name the soldier who pierced Jesus' side with the lance. The oldest known stories about this event, found in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, added to later copies of the 4th-century Acts of Pilate, identify the soldier as a centurion named Longinus. This gave the spear its Latin name, Lancea Longini.
A version of the name Longinus appears in the Rabula Gospels from the late 6th century. In a picture, the name ΛΟΓΙΝΟΣ (LOGINOS) is written above the head of the soldier who is thrusting his lance into Jesus' side. This is one of the earliest known records of the name, though it may have been added later.
Relics
A Holy Lance relic is kept in a small room above the statue of Saint Longinus at Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.
The earliest records about the Holy Lance date back to the 6th century. A religious book called the Breviary of Jerusalem (about 530) describes the lance being displayed at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In his writings from around 540–548, Cassiodorus mentions the lance still being in Jerusalem. A traveler named the Piacenza pilgrim (about 570) said the lance was in the Church of Zion. Gregory of Tours wrote about the lance and other relics in his book Libri Miraculorum (about 574–594). Some believe the holy lance was taken from Rome by Alaric and his Visigoths during their attack in August 410. It may have been buried with Alaric among gold, silver, and a golden menorah in Cosenza, southern Italy, in 410. No one has found Alaric’s tomb or treasure, which might have been taken by the Byzantines. Because of this, the holy lance could have appeared in Jerusalem many years later.
In 614, Jerusalem was captured by the Sasanian general Shahrbaraz. The Chronicon Paschale says the Holy Lance was among the relics taken during this event. One of Shahrbaraz’s associates gave the lance to Nicetas, who later brought it to the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. However, a book called De locis sanctis, which describes a pilgrimage by Arculf in 670, places the lance in Jerusalem at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Arculf is the last medieval pilgrim to report the lance in Jerusalem, as later travelers like Willibald and Bernard did not mention it.
By the middle of the 10th century, a lance relic was honored in Constantinople at the Church of the Virgin of the Pharos. Some soldiers and clergy who took part in the First Crusade may have seen this relic, which added to confusion when another Holy Lance was found in Antioch in 1098. During the Siege of Tripoli, Raymond of Toulose reportedly brought the Antioch lance to Constantinople and gave it to Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. Scholars disagree on how this situation was resolved. One historian, Steven Runciman, believed the Byzantine court called the Antioch relic a nail (in Greek, ἧλος) to avoid offending Raymond, who did not know Greek. Another historian, Edgar Robert Ashton Sewter, thought Alexios wanted to expose the Antioch relic as a fake, which might have happened when Prince Bohemond I of Antioch was forced in 1108 to swear an oath on another lance. It is unclear whether Alexios kept the Antioch lance or returned it to Raymond. Some 12th-century documents mention a single Holy Lance in Constantinople, but none say whether it was the one from the crusaders or the Byzantine spear.
According to Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, a piece of the Holy Lance was placed in an icon that Alexios V Doukas lost during a battle with Henry of Flanders in 1204. The capture of this icon by Henry’s forces was important to many sources about the Fourth Crusade. The crusaders reported this event to Pope Innocent III, and it was also written about by Geoffrey of Villehardouin, the Devastatio Constantinopolitana, Niketas Choniates, Robert de Clari, Ralph of Coggeshall, and Robert of Auxerre. However, none of these sources mention the icon having relics, while Alberic claimed it had a piece of the Holy Lance, a part of the Holy Shroud, one of Jesus’s teeth, and relics from thirty martyrs. Modern historians have questioned Alberic’s story, calling it "fanciful" and "pure invention." After the battle, the crusaders sent the icon to Cîteaux Abbey, but there is no record of whether it arrived.
After the fall of Constantinople, Robert de Clari described the treasures taken by the Latin Empire, including "the iron of the lance with which Our Lord had His side pierced," in the Church of the Virgin of the Pharos. However, by the 1230s, the Latin Empire was in financial trouble. In 1239, Baldwin II sold Constantinople’s Crown of Thorns to King Louis IX of France. Over the next few years, Baldwin sold twenty-two relics to Louis, including the Holy Lance, which probably arrived in Paris in 1242. These relics were later placed in the Sainte Chapelle. During the French Revolution, they were moved to the Bibliothèque Nationale, but the lance was later lost.
Even after the Holy Lance was sent to Paris, some travelers claimed it was still in Constantinople during the late Byzantine period. John Mandeville, for example, wrote about the lance in both Paris and Constantinople, saying the one in Constantinople was larger. Although Mandeville’s account is doubted, his book shows that many people believed there were multiple Holy Lance relics.
The relics in Constantinople, including the lance, were likely taken by Sultan Mehmed II in 1453 when he conquered the city. In 1492, Mehmed’s son, Bayezid II, sent the lance to Pope Innocent VIII to encourage the pope to keep his brother and rival, Cem, imprisoned. At this time, many people in Rome doubted the lance’s authenticity because other lances were in Paris, Nuremberg, and Armenia. This relic has remained in Rome since, and it is now kept at Saint Peter’s Basilica. Innocent’s tomb, made by Antonio del Pollaiuolo, shows the pope holding the spear blade he received from Bayezid.
In the mid-18th century, Pope Benedict XIV compared a drawing of the Sainte Chapelle lance with the spearhead in St. Peter’s. He
Literary
The Holy Lance has been mixed up with the bleeding lance described in the unfinished 12th century story Perceval, the Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes. The story also mentions a javelot that has wounded the Fisher King, which might or might not be the same as the bleeding lance. Chrétien describes the bleeding spear as having magical powers that can cause destruction, which do not match any Christian traditions. However, later parts of Chrétien's poem tried to explain the mystery of the bleeding spear by linking it to the lance mentioned in the Bible passage John 19:34.
Chrétien's Perceval was later adapted by Wolfram von Eschenbach into the German story Parzival. Like Chrétien, Wolfram describes the bleeding lance in a way that is hard to connect with the spear used by Longinus. Parzival became the main source for Richard Wagner's 1882 opera Parsifal, in which the Fisher King is wounded by the spear that pierced Jesus's side.
Pop culture
The spear is featured in the Indiana Jones franchise. It plays a central role in the comic series Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny and appears in the film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, where the main character tries to recover it from Nazi control.
In the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Spear of Longinus is a powerful alien artifact. It is used to pierce the second angel, Lilith, to stop it from causing harm.
In the game Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the Spear of Longinus is used by Maya Okamura to seriously injure Maya Amano, fulfilling a prophecy called the Oracle of Maia, which predicts the end of the world.
The spear appears in the 2005 film Constantine. Early in the movie, it is discovered hidden in Mexico, wrapped in a Nazi flag, after being lost following World War II.
In season 2 of the Arrowverse TV show Legends of Tomorrow (2016–2022), the Holy Lance is a major part of the story. The Legends gather pieces of the broken spear from different time periods. After reassembling it, the antagonists use it with the Blood of Christ to alter reality. The Legends later use the spear again to reverse the changes.