Holy Spear

Holy Spear  : is the spear, said to have been thrust into the side of Jesus on the cross, by a centurion called Gaius Cassius Longinus.  The spear also goes by the name of 'The Lance of Longinus' and 'The Spear of Destiny'.  The Holy Spear is said to possess great powers especially the power to grant great success in battles.  Apparently Hitler was somewhat obsessed by it.

Over the years there have been at least four different spears which have been claimed to be the original.  The first appeared in the thirteenth century and was taken to Paris by St. Louis following his return from the Palestine crusades.  The second was sent by Ottoman sultan Bajazet II, to Pope Innocent VIII in 1492 and placed in one of the piers supporting the dome at St. Peter's basilica.  The third was simply a copy of the fourth and kept a Cracow in Poland.  The fourth however, has a much more complex history.  It passed through a number of hands before finally finding it's way into the ownership of the Habsburg Dynasty and until as recently as 1938 was displayed in the Hofburg museum.  Hitler later had it hidden in a special vault at Nurenberg.

Strangely enough two of it's previous owners Charlemagne and Frederick Barbarossa are both said to have died shortly after dropping the spear.  Indeed the day it was retrieved from Adolf Hitler's underground vault by the victorious American troops in Nuremburg he himself committed suicide.

Source: Information for this article, Dr. Karl P. N. Schuker, The Unexplained, Carlton Books Limited (1997) ISBN: 1-85868-384