The Spear of Christ

This is the first Friday in Lent.  A program on National Geographic yesterday at 11 a.m. dealt with "The Spear of Christ."  This would be the spear carried by the Roman soldier who used it to pierce the side of Jesus during his crucifixion.

Perhaps you've heard of the Shroud of Turin, the presumed burial cloth of Jesus.  Perhaps you have heard of the cup used at the last supper, depicted in one of the Indiana Jones movies.  I had never heard of the Spear of Christ artifact before.

This is the story.  After Jesus' death, the spear passed into the hands of Maurice, a Christian Roman Centurion who carried it in battle and was killed for refusing to participate in a pagan sacrifice, along with 5,999 of his fellow Soldiers.

Then at some point the spear was obtained by Constantine, whose mother, Helena, was a devout Christian and who prayed constantly for her son's conversion.  Constantine did in fact become a Christian, and his mother's trip to the Holy Land to recover holy artifacts apparently may have been quite successful.  She brought back fragments of a nail used in the crucifixion.  These pieces were apparently hammered into an old nail (not as old though) and were marked with a cross, a fish, and microscopically with the letters RI, meaning Jesus the King.  The fish was used as a secret Christian sign during the time of persecution.  The INRI above Jesus' cross was sometimes abbreviated as RI.  The old nail with the fragments of the nail used in Jesus' crucifixion was inserted into the spear, then silver was wound around it to strengthen it.

After Constantine, the spear reached Charmemagne who also treasured this object.  A later emperor who needed money sold the spear to Vienna's town council.  During the Reformation, the artifact was forgotten for hundreds of years.  The spear was housed in Nuremburg and Vienna at different points in time -- once to keep it from Napoleon, and then after Hitler's bloody rampage through Austria, it was in his hands.  He chose to send it back to Nuremburg and the Americans found it in a hidden bunker there.  It was returned to Vienna where it remains today.

An expert was brought it to examine the weapon (without carbon dating which would have damaged it).  He determined that the metal in the spear and the metal in the fragments marked by the gold crosses are identical.  Thus, they could be traced back to the time of Christ. 

Two other spears also purport to be the Spear of Christ.  One is in the Vatican but no one is allowed to see it.  The expert checked the other one and determined that it could not be authentic.  So this one, in Vienna, appears to have history behind it.  Isn't this just amazing.  The picture at the top of the blog is the Vienna spear.  It is sheathed in gold, then underneath sheathed in silver.  At least twice, the engraving says, "The Spear of Christ" in Latin.  The first sheath states that it was the spear of Maurice.

Holy objects like the shroud, the cup, and the spear are not necessary for us to believe in God, to believe in Jesus, but perhaps they might help someone who is struggling find their way to our Lord.  If you get a chance to see this program, do so.  And maybe recommend it to someone else.