The Spear of Destiny is one of the most fought over objects in all of human history. Emperors carried it into battle. A brutal warlord threw it down at the gates of Rome. Napoleon tried to seize it. Adolf Hitler became obsessed with it from the moment he laid eyes on it as a young man in Vienna. And according to an old prophecy attached to this weapon, whoever holds the Spear of Destiny holds the fate of the entire world in their hands.

This is the spear that pierced the side of Jesus Christ at the crucifixion. And it has never stopped attracting powerful, dangerous people.

What the Spear of Destiny Is

The Spear of Destiny, also known as the Holy Lance or the Lance of Longinus, is the weapon used by a Roman soldier to pierce the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross at Golgotha.

The event is recorded in the Gospel of John, the only one of the four gospels to mention it. According to the account, Roman soldiers came to check whether the men being crucified were already dead. When they reached Jesus and found that he was no longer alive, one soldier thrust a spear into his side. Blood and water immediately poured from the wound.

The Bible does not give the soldier a name. That name came later, through an early Christian text called the Gospel of Nicodemus, which identified the soldier as a centurion named Longinus. This is why the Spear of Destiny is sometimes called the Lance of Longinus or the Spear of Longinus.

The Soldier Who Used It

According to Christian tradition, Longinus was a Roman centurion who suffered from a serious eye condition that had damaged his sight. When he thrust the spear into Jesus and the blood and water from the wound touched his face and eyes, his vision was reportedly restored on the spot.

This moment changed him. Longinus is said to have converted to Christianity shortly after the crucifixion, declaring that Jesus was the Son of God. He eventually left military service, became a monk, and spent years spreading the Christian faith before being arrested and executed for his beliefs by Roman authorities.

He is venerated today as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Apostolic Church. His feast day falls on the 16th of October.

The Prophecy Attached to the Spear of Destiny

As the Spear of Destiny passed from one ruler to the next over the centuries, a prophecy became attached to it. The words were recorded and repeated across generations:

“Whosoever possesses the Spear and understands the powers it serves holds in his hands the destiny of the world for good or evil.”

Whether one believes in such things or not, the list of rulers who owned the Spear of Destiny and the fates that followed them is difficult to ignore.

The Long Chain of Rulers Who Possessed It

The Spear of Destiny moved through history like no other relic. Its chain of possession reads like a list of the most powerful figures of the ancient and medieval world.

Constantine the Great received the Spear of Destiny around 306 AD and used it as a standard in all his military campaigns. He went on to win battle after battle, united the Roman Empire, and made Christianity the official religion of Rome. He attributed his victories to the power of Christ and the holy weapon he carried.

Attila the Hun seized the Spear of Destiny around 450 AD as he tore across the Roman Empire. He was unstoppable as long as he held it. Then, approaching Rome with a weakened and plague-ridden army, he reportedly rode to the gates of the city and threw the spear to the ground, declaring it was of no use to him since he did not understand its power. Shortly after, a Roman general named Theodoric took possession of the Spear and met Attila at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. Attila was forced to retreat for the first time in his entire military career. He died less than two years later.

Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, was said to have carried the Spear of Destiny through 47 successful military campaigns across Europe. His reign transformed the political map of the continent. Then, during one campaign, he accidentally dropped the spear while crossing a river. He died shortly after.

Frederick Barbarossa, another Holy Roman Emperor, was similarly credited with extraordinary military success while he held the Spear of Destiny. He too died shortly after accidentally dropping the weapon into a stream during a river crossing.

The pattern was noticed. To possess the Spear of Destiny was to be victorious. To lose it was to lose everything.

Napoleon and the Spear of Destiny

By the time Napoleon Bonaparte was rising to power in the late 1700s, the Spear of Destiny was housed in the imperial collection in Vienna, Austria, held by the Habsburg rulers of the Holy Roman Empire.

Napoleon was well aware of its reputation. As he swept through Europe and threatened the Habsburg territories, the Austrian rulers quickly moved the Spear of Destiny out of Vienna and into hiding to prevent it from falling into his hands. Napoleon never got hold of it. His campaign ultimately failed, and he was defeated and exiled.

The spear remained safely in Vienna after his fall.

Adolf Hitler and the Spear of Destiny

No figure in modern history was more consumed by the Spear of Destiny than Adolf Hitler.

As a young man struggling and largely unknown in Vienna in the early 1900s, Hitler would spend hours inside the Hofburg Museum staring at the spear on display there. By his own account, the moment he laid eyes on it changed him. He believed he was destined to one day possess it and use it to reshape the world.

When Hitler rose to power and German forces annexed Austria in 1938, one of his first acts was to have the Spear of Destiny transferred from Vienna to Nuremberg, the spiritual center of the Nazi movement. He had it placed in a specially built chamber and treated it as a sacred relic of the Third Reich.

For years, his armies swept across Europe with terrifying speed and force.

Then on April 30, 1945, American forces captured Nuremberg and took possession of the Spear of Destiny. Within hours of losing the weapon, Hitler took his own life in Berlin. Nazi Germany surrendered within days. The Third Reich, which Hitler had boasted would last a thousand years, collapsed completely.

The spear was found by Allied soldiers and brought to General George Patton, who ordered its history to be documented and traced. It was returned to Vienna shortly after, where it remains today.

Where the Spear of Destiny Is Today

The most famous version of the Spear of Destiny is currently on permanent display at the Imperial Treasury inside the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. It is an impressive piece of ancient weaponry featuring a golden sleeve that holds the broken pieces of the blade together.

Scientific tests carried out on the spear found that the spearhead itself dates to roughly the 7th century AD, making it older than many expected but not quite 2,000 years old. However, an iron pin fixed into the blade and traditionally claimed to be a nail from the actual crucifixion was found by researchers to be consistent in shape and length with first century Roman nails. This detail has never been fully explained.

There are actually four objects around the world that claim to be the true Spear of Destiny. One is in Rome inside St. Peter’s Basilica. One is preserved in Krakow, Poland. One is housed in a museum in Armenia. The Vatican has never officially confirmed the authenticity of any of them.

Why the Spear of Destiny Still Holds Power Over People

The story of the Spear of Destiny works on two levels at the same time.

On one level it is a straightforward religious relic, a physical object connected to the final hours of Jesus Christ and venerated by Christians as one of the most sacred instruments of the Passion, alongside the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns.

On another level it is one of history’s most compelling patterns. The rulers who held the Spear of Destiny won. The rulers who lost it fell. Whether that is the result of divine power, psychological belief, coincidence, or something else entirely is a question no one has been able to answer for 2,000 years.

What is certain is that from a Roman execution ground in Jerusalem to a locked vault in Vienna, the Spear of Destiny has passed through the hands of conquerors, saints, madmen, and emperors. No other weapon on earth carries a history like it.