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. The Bible only briefly mentions the lance, but later stories in the medieval church created traditions about it. Objects claimed to be the lance appeared as early as the 6th century in Jerusalem. By the Late Middle Ages, pieces of the lance were described in many places across Europe. Some of these items are still kept today.

Relics of the Holy Lance were often used in religious ceremonies. At times, they were believed to bring victory in battles. For example, Henry the Fowler’s lance was thought to help win the Battle of Riade. Crusaders also 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, where it is 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 Synoptic Gospels. The Gospel describes how the Romans planned to break Jesus' legs, a practice called crurifragium, to speed up death during crucifixion. Jesus' followers wanted to ensure he died before the Sabbath began at sunset on Friday, as burials were not allowed on the Sabbath. Before breaking his legs, they noticed Jesus was already dead, and 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 references to this story, found in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, added to late manuscripts of the 4th-century Acts of Pilate, describe the soldier as a centurion named Longinus. This gave the lance its Latin name, Lancea Longini.

A version of the name Longinus appears in the Rabula Gospels from the late 6th century. In an illustration, the name ΛΟΓΙΝΟΣ (LOGINOS) is written above the head of the soldier who is piercing Jesus' side with the lance. 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 loggia carved into a pillar above the statue of Saint Longinus at Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

The earliest known records about the Holy Lance date back to the 6th century. A document called the Breviary of Jerusalem, written around 530, mentions the lance on display at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Around 540–548, Cassiodorus wrote that the lance was still in Jerusalem. A report from a pilgrim named the Piacenza pilgrim, dated around 570, said the lance was in the Church of Zion. Gregory of Tours described the lance and other relics in his book, Libri Miraculorum, written between 574–594. Some believe the holy lance was taken from Rome by Alaric and his Visigoths in 410. It might have been buried with Alaric in Cosenza, southern Italy, along with gold, silver, and a golden menorah. No one has found Alaric’s tomb or treasure, which may have been taken by the Byzantines. This means the holy lance could have appeared in Jerusalem hundreds of 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 description of 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 pilgrims 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. This relic may have been seen by soldiers and clergy during the First Crusade, which led to confusion about another Holy Lance 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. Some say the Byzantine court called the Antioch relic a nail, using Raymond’s lack of Greek knowledge to avoid offending him. Others believe Alexios tried to prove the Antioch relic was fake by making Prince Bohemond I of Antioch swear an oath on another lance in 1108. It is unclear if Alexios kept the Antioch lance or returned it to Raymond. Some 12th-century documents mention a single Holy Lance in Constantinople, but they do not say which one it was.

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 the event to Pope Innocent III, and it was also recorded 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. Alberic claimed the icon 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 think Alberic’s account is not reliable. After the battle, the crusaders sent the icon to Cîteaux Abbey, but there is no record of whether it arrived there.

After the sack of Constantinople, Robert de Clari described the spoils of the newly formed 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. By the 1230s, the Latin Empire was in financial trouble. In 1239, Baldwin II sold Constantinople’s Crown of Thorns relic to King Louis IX of France. Over the next few years, Baldwin sold twenty-two relics to Louis, including the Holy Lance. These relics probably arrived in Paris in 1242 and were later placed in the Sainte Chapelle. During the French Revolution, they were moved to the Bibliothèque Nationale, but the lance disappeared.

Even after the Holy Lance was sent to Paris, travelers continued to say it was in Constantinople during the late Byzantine period. John Mandeville wrote about the lance in both Paris and Constantinople, saying the one in Constantinople was larger. Although Mandeville’s account is not trusted, his book shows that people knew about multiple Holy Lance relics.

The relics in Constantinople, including the lance, were likely

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 beliefs. 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 in 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 to 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 same spear that pierced Jesus’s side.

Pop culture

The spear is a key item in the Indiana Jones franchise. It plays an important role in the comic series Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny and appears in the movie Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. In the film, the main character tries to take the spear from the Nazis.

In the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Spear of Longinus is a powerful object from another world. It is used to pierce the second angel, Lilith, which stops the angel from causing harm.

In the video game Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the Spear of Longinus is used by a character named Maya Okamura. She uses it to seriously injure another character, Maya Amano, to complete a prophecy called the Oracle of Maia, which predicts a terrible future.

The spear also appears in the 2005 movie Constantine. Early in the film, it is discovered in Mexico, wrapped in a Nazi flag. It had been hidden there after World War II ended.

In season 2 of the TV show Legends of Tomorrow (2016–2022), the Holy Lance is a major part of the story. The characters gather pieces of the broken spear from different times. When the spear is fixed, the villains use it with the Blood of Christ to change reality. Later, the heroes use the spear again to undo the villains' changes.