Holy Lance - WikiHQ

thumb|upright=1.2|Fresco by [[Fra Angelico, Dominican monastery at San Marco, Florence, showing the lance piercing the side of Jesus on the cross ()]]

The Holy Lance, also known as the Spear of Longinus (named after Saint Longinus), the Spear of Destiny, or the Holy Spear, is alleged to be the lance that pierced the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross during his crucifixion. As with other instruments of the Passion, the lance is only briefly mentioned in the Christian Bible, but later became the subject of extrabiblical traditions in the medieval church. Relics purported to be the lance began to appear as early as the 6th century, originally in Jerusalem. By the Late Middle Ages, relics identified as the spearhead of the Holy Lance (or fragments thereof) had been described throughout Europe. Several of these artifacts are preserved to this day.

Holy Lance relics have typically been used for religious ceremonies, but at times some of them have been considered to be guarantees of victory in battle. For example, Henry the Fowler's lance was credited for winning the Battle of Riade, and the Crusaders believed their discovery of a Holy Lance brought them a favorable end to the Siege of Antioch.

In the modern era, at least four major relics are claimed to be the Holy Lance or parts of it. They are located in Rome, Vienna, Vagharshapat and Antioch. The most prominent Holy Lance relic has been the one in Vienna, adorned with a distinctive gold cuff. This version of the lance is on public display with the rest of the Imperial Regalia at the Hofburg.

thumb|Miniature of the [[Crucifixion from the Rabula Gospels. "Loginos" is depicted piercing the right side of Jesus with a spear.]]

Biblical references

The lance (, ) is mentioned in the Gospel of John, but not in the Synoptic Gospels. The gospel states that the Romans planned to break Jesus' legs, a method of hastening death during a crucifixion known as . Jesus's followers wanted to ensure that he died before the start of the Sabbath at sundown on Friday, so that he could be promptly laid to rest; burials are not traditionally permitted on the Sabbath. Just before they did so, they noticed that Jesus was already dead and that there was no reason to break his legs ("and no bone will be broken"). To make sure that he was dead, a Roman soldier stabbed him in the side.

The Gospel of John does not give the name of the soldier who pierced Christ's side with a . The oldest known references to the legend, the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, appended to late manuscripts of the 4th century Acts of Pilate, identify the soldier as a centurion and called Longinus (making the spear's Latin name ').

A form of the name Longinus occurs in the Rabula Gospels in the late 6th century. In a miniature, the name ' is written above the head of the soldier who is thrusting his lance into Christ's side. This is one of the earliest records of the name, if the inscription is not a later addition.

Relics

Rome

thumb|Statue of Saint Longinus by [[Gianlorenzo Bernini (1638)]]

A Holy Lance relic is preserved at Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, in a loggia carved into the pillar above the statue of Saint Longinus.

The earliest known references to Holy Lance relics date to the 6th century. The Breviary of Jerusalem (circa 530) describes the lance on display at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Cassiodorus asserts the continued presence of the lance in Jerusalem. A report by the Piacenza pilgrim (c. 570) places the lance in the Church of Zion. Gregory of Tours described the lance and other relics of the Passion in his Libri Miraculorum (c. 574–594).

The holy lance is also supposed to have been stolen from Rome by Alaric and his Visigoths during their plundering in August 410. Therefore, it could have been buried together with Alaric among tons of gold, silver and the golden menorah in Cosenza, southern Italy in the fall of 410. Nobody has found Alaric's tomb and treasure that was probably emptied by the Byzantines, and therefore the holy lance could possibly appear some hundred years later in Jerusalem.

In 614, Jerusalem was captured by the Sasanian general Shahrbaraz. The Chronicon Paschale says that the Holy Lance was among the relics captured, but one of Shahrbaraz's associates gave it to Nicetas who brought it to the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople later that year. However, De locis sanctis, describing the pilgrimage of Arculf in 670, places the lance in Jerusalem, at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Arculf is the last of the medieval pilgrims to report the lance in Jerusalem, as Willibald and Bernard made no mention of it.

By the middle of the 10th century, a lance relic was venerated in Constantinople at the Church of the Virgin of the Pharos. The relic was likely viewed by some of the soldiers and clergy participating in the First Crusade, adding to the confusion surrounding the emergence of another Holy Lance at Antioch in 1098. During the Siege of Tripoli, Raymond of Toulose reportedly brought the Antioch lance to Constantinople, and presented it to Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. and that this was accomplished when Prince Bohemond I of Antioch was compelled in 1108

According to Alberic of Trois-Fontaines, a fragment of the Holy Lance was set into the icon that Alexios V Doukas lost in battle with Henry of Flanders in 1204. The capture of this icon by Henry's forces was considered important to many contemporary sources on the Fourth Crusade. In addition to the crusaders' report to Pope Innocent III, the incident was documented by Geoffrey of Villehardouin, the Devastatio Constantinopolitana, Niketas Choniates, Robert de Clari, and Robert of Auxerre. However, none of these sources mention the icon bearing any relics, whereas Alberic claimed it was adorned with the lance fragment, a portion of the Holy Shroud, one of Jesus's deciduous teeth, and other relics from thirty martyrs. and "pure invention." In any case, after the battle the crusaders sent the icon to Cîteaux Abbey, In 1239, Baldwin II arranged to sell Constantinople's Crown of Thorns relic to King Louis IX of France. All of these relics were later enshrined in the Sainte Chapelle. During the French Revolution they were removed to the Bibliothèque Nationale, but the lance subsequently disappeared. Of particular interest, John Mandeville described the lance relics in both Paris and Constantinople, stating that the latter was much larger than the former. the widespread popularity of the work demonstrates that the existence of multiple Holy Lance relics was public knowledge.

thumb|Tomb of Pope Innocent VIII, transferred from the [[Old St. Peter's Basilica. The left hand holds the spearhead of the holy lance, presented to the Pope by Sultan Bayezid II.]]

The relics remaining in Constantinople, including the lance, were presumably seized by Sultan Mehmed II in 1453 when he conquered the city. In 1492, his son Bayezid II sent the lance to Pope Innocent VIII, to encourage the pope to continue to keep his brother and rival Cem prisoner. because of the presence of other rival lances in Paris, Nuremberg (see Holy Lance in Vienna below), and Armenia (see Holy Lance in Echmiadzin below).

File:Adhémar de Monteil à Antioche.jpeg|A mitred Adhémar de Monteil carrying one of the instances of the Holy Lance in one of the battles of the First Crusade

File:Paris (75), Sainte-Chapelle, grande châsse en 1790.png|1790 drawing of the relics at Sainte-Chapell; the lance tip is in the reliquary at the right hand side.

File:Sainte Lance de Rome.jpg|1898 drawing of the Holy Lance in Rome

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Vienna

thumb|The Holy Lance (left) on display with other items from the [[Imperial Regalia in Vienna]]

The Holy Lance in Vienna is displayed in the Imperial Treasury or Weltliche Schatzkammer (lit. Worldly Treasure Room) at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. It is the head of a typical winged lance of the Carolingian dynasty. from King Rudolf II of Burgundy. Rudolf is supposed to have received the lance as a gift from a "Count Samson", This version of events has been rejected by historians. The Polish lance is currently displayed in the John Paul II Cathedral Museum in Kraków. The fate of the Hungarian lance is less clear. When Stephen's successor, Peter Orseolo was deposed in 1041, he sought the aid of German king Henry III, who captured the lance in the Battle of Ménfő. Whether Henry returned the lance to Peter upon his restoration is uncertain. The gold inlay suggests that this artifact could be Stephen's lance replica, but this has not been confirmed. This collection was called the Imperial Regalia ('). Baron von Hügel took the regalia to Ratisbon for safekeeping, but by 1800 that city was also under threat of invasion, so he relocated them again to Passau, Linz, and Vienna. Based on X-ray diffraction, fluorescence tests, and other noninvasive procedures, he dated the main body of the spear to the 7th century at the earliest.

The Hofburg spear has been re-imagined in popular culture as a magical talisman whose powers may be used for good or evil.

File:Weltliche Schatzkammer Wien (180)-3-2.jpg|Holy Lance displayed in the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria

File:Maurycy.jpg|Polish replica of the Holy Lance, Wawel Hill, Kraków

File:Holy Lance Detail.jpg|The inscription on the Holy Lance

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Vagharshapat

thumb|The Holy Lance in [[Vagharshapat]]

A Holy Lance is conserved in Vagharshapat (previously known as Echmiadzin), the religious capital of Armenia. It was previously held in the monastery of Geghard.The first source that mentions it is a text Holy Relics of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in a thirteenth-century Armenian manuscript. According to this text, the spear which pierced Jesus was to have been brought to Armenia by the Apostle Thaddeus. The manuscript does not specify precisely where it was kept, but the Holy Relics gives a description that exactly matches the lance, the monastery gate (since the thirteenth century precisely), and the name of Geghardavank (Monastery of the Holy Lance).

In 1655, the French traveler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was the first Westerner to see this relic in Armenia. In 1805, the Russians captured the monastery and the relic was moved to Tchitchanov Geghard, Tbilisi, Georgia.

It was later returned to Armenia, and is still on display at the Manoogian museum in Vagharshapat, enshrined in a 17th-century reliquary. Every year during the commemoration of the apostles St. Thaddeus and St. Bartholomew the relic is brought out for worship.

Antioch

thumb|The Discovery of the Holy Lance in Antioch

During the June 1098 Siege of Antioch, a monk named Peter Bartholomew reported that he had a vision in which St. Andrew told him that the Holy Lance was buried in the Church of St. Peter in Antioch. After much digging in the cathedral, Bartholomew allegedly discovered a lance. Historian Klaus-Peter Todt has suggested this relic could have been buried to hide it from Seljuk forces in 1084, allowing the crusaders to find it in 1098.

Literary

thumb|left|The Holy Lance in [[Parsifal, Act 3 (by Arnaldo dell'Ira, )]]

The Holy Lance has been conflated with the bleeding lance depicted in the unfinished 12th century romance Perceval, the Story of the Grail by Chrétien de Troyes. The story also refers to a javelot that has wounded the Fisher King, which may or may not be intended to be one and the same with the bleeding lance. Chrétien ascribes supernaturally destructive powers to the bleeding spear, which are inconsistent with any Christian tradition.

Chrétien's Perceval was adapted by Wolfram von Eschenbach into the German epic Parzival. Like Chrétien, Wolfram depicts the bleeding lance in a manner that cannot easily be reconciled with the spear of Longinus.

Pop culture

The spear appears in the Indiana Jones franchise, being key to the plot of the comic series Indiana Jones and the Spear of Destiny and also appearing in the film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, where the protagonist attempts to retrieve it from Nazi control.

In the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, the Spear of Longinus is the name of a powerful artifact of alien origin. The object pierces the second angel, Lilith, to incapacitate it.

In the game Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the Spear of Longinus is used by Maya Okamura to fatally wound Maya Amano to fulfill the Oracle of Maia, a doomsday prophecy.

It appears in the 2005 film Constantine, where the artifact is found early in the movie having been hidden in Mexico (wrapped in a Nazi flag) after having been lost after WWII.

In season 2 of the Arrowverse TV show Legends of Tomorrow (2016–2022), the Holy Lance was a key plot point in which the Legends collected the pieces of the broken spear from across time. Once reconstituted, the spear was then used (in conjunction with the Blood of Christ) by the series antagonists to change reality before the Legends used it again to change reality back.

Explanatory notes

References

General and cited references

External links

"Piercing an Ancient Tale"An article by Maryann Bird in the European Edition of Time on British metallurgist Robert Feather's scientific examination of the Spear in Vienna.