The Spear of Destiny: The Holy Lance of Longinus

According to legend the ‘Spear of Christ’ or ‘Holy Lance’ is the actual spear which pierced the side of Jesus Christ during the crucifixion. On a par with the Holy Grail as a relic of the utmost religious significance, the Spear is similarly believed to possess untapped mystical powers; whoever possesses it is said to determine the fate of the world.

Throughout it’s long existence, the spear has been both coveted and possessed by an astonishing list of figures, many as influential over history as the Roman Emperor Constantine, Charlemagne, and more recently both Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler, all of whom were perplexed by its apparent mystical powers.

What really sets the Spear apart from the Grail, is that while the ‘Cup of Christ’ has been lost to mankind for well over a millennium, the ‘Spear of Christ’ is currently sitting in a display case in the Hofsburg Museum of Vienna, awaiting a detailed investigation by modern science.

The spear itself is now comprised of so many different historical layers that it resembles a Russian doll. Successive generations of European luminaries have added repairs and decorations over the centuries leaving the spear a beautiful patchwork of different historical eras, but also disguising it’s original appearance so much that it requires painstaking disassembly and inspection to determine it's origins.

At the core of the spear is the original blade, now broken, and combined with an iron pinion that is reputed to be a nail taken from the cross. Holding the broken spearhead and the ‘nail’ together is some silver wire believed to have been added around 600AD, at the same time as the “wings” - two extra blades that were added to adorn the base of the spear. Covering most of this, and concealing the repairs from view are two separate metal sheaths, one in silver and another over the top of this in gold, dating from the 11^th and 14^th centuries respectively, and bearing a complex variety of inscriptions that could yet yield any number of historic revelations when analysed.

The story of the spear begins with a Roman Centurion named Longinius. Discovering the body of Jesus Christ on the cross, Longinius is said to have thrust his spear into Jesus’s side to make certain he was dead. This spear-thrust caused both blood and water to gush from the wound, miraculously curing Longinius of his partial sight, and converting him instantly to the worship of God. Longinius retained the spear and eventually became a martyr for the church, then posthumously a saint. At the same time the spear itself took on immediate significance as a Holy Relic.

The spear then makes a remarkable journey across historical Europe, appearing from time to time in ancient texts, usually being used by rulers as a means to try and legitimise themselves and their rule, or alternatively being credited with military victory. For instance, Constantine, the first Christian Emperor of Rome is said to have carried the spear victoriously into the Battle of Milvian Bridge, 312AD. Soon the spear was attributed with a presence at almost every successful moment crucial to the survival of European Christianity.

Charles Martel the famed “defender of France” is said to have wielded it when he thwarted the Moorish invasion of France at the Battle of Tours in 732AD, and his grandson Charlemagne is said to have grasped the spear during his coronation as King of Lombardy. Following this event the spear was incorporated into the coronation paraphernalia of the Holy Roman Emperors, and in this capacity it ended up in Nuremburg.

The spear remained here in Nuremburg until 1800, when it was urgently smuggled away to the Austrian court to keep it out of the hands of the advancing Napoleon Bonaparte. Bonaparte, as with many before him, was anxious to bask in the power and legitimacy the spear projected over its owner. Escaping Napoleon’s clutches, the spear then remained in Austria with the crown jewels, until it fell into the hands of a man even more belligerent than Napoleon: Adolf Hitler.

When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, He had the Austrian crown jewels plundered and taken to Germany – including the Spear of Christ, which he immediately took into his personal possession, reputedly keeping it under his bed! Hitler had harboured a private obsession with the spear ever since his days as an impoverished artist in Vienna, where he had once visited it in the Hofsburg Museum. He was also profoundly influenced throughout his life by Wagner, whose great opera “Parsival” revolves around the power of the spear, and must have influenced Hitler’s thinking.

However, the mystical influence of the spear is not believed to be uniformly benign. The downside of the spear’s mythical power is that it is also credited with causing the death of a leader who loses it. Charlemagne died shortly after dropping the spear in 814 AD, and in 1945, only 90 minutes after it was taken from his possession, Hitler was dead (albeit from suicide). The spear then passed to US General Patton, who despite his own powerful interest in the occult, returned the spear to Austria where it has remained in safety until today.

Despite all the characters who have owned the spear in history, it nonetheless remains remarkable that two figures as diametrically different as Jesus Christ and Adolf Hitler are linked by one single object, separated by nearly 2000 years of history.