According to tradition, St. Longinus was the centurion who pierced the side of Christ to prove that Jesus was dead. St. Longinus is said to have been converted to Christianity after noting the darkness descending following Christ's death, and because he was healed of his poor eyesight by Christ's blood flowing down his spear. He is said to have given up his military life and died a martyr's death. (For information on St. Longinus, see section 47 of Bl. Jacobus de Voragine's, O. P., The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. This is a thirteenth century text, recently translated by William Granger Ryan and published in two volumes (1993; Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press). St. Longinus is discussed in vol. I, pg. 184 of the new edition.)
For more information on St. Longinus, as well as information about those claiming to have his remains, you may read online the life of S. Longinus, M.. This is taken from pages 266-267 of the following:
Baring-Gould, Rev. Sabine. 1914. The Lives of the Saints, Volume III: March. Edinburgh: John Grant.
Through his acts at the Cross, St. Longinus not only fulfilled Biblical prophecy, but also gave the world one of its most discussed relics: The Holy Lance.
The Bible says of the piercing of Christ:
It was the Day of Preparation, and to avoid the bodies' remaining on the cross during the Sabbath -- since that Sabbath was a day of special solemnity -- the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away. Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other. When they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water. This is the evidence of one who saw it -- true evidence, and he knows that what he says is true -- and he gives it so that you may believe as well. Because all this happened to fulfill the words of scripture:Not one bone of his will be broken;
and again, in another place scripture says:
They will look to the one whom they have pierced (John 19:31-37).
In addition to the last line hinting at the conversion of the soldiers, many believe that the centurion referred to in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke was also the centurion who pierced the side of Christ. These Gospels both say that the centurion present at the death of Jesus testified, "'In truth this man was son of God'" (Matthew 27:54, Mark 15:39), and Luke tells us the centurion "gave praise to God" and exclaimed "'Truly, this was an upright man'" (Luke 23:47). However, some scholars believe this correlation to be erroneous, and the Bible is less than clear on this point.
As for the name of the centurion, we must rely on tradition as recorded in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, formerly called the Acts of Pontius Pilate, which tells us:
Then Longinus, a certain soldier, taking a spear, pierced his side, and presently there came forth blood and water (Nicodemus 7:8).
This Gospel is printed on pages 63-91 of The Lost Books of the Bible (1979; New York: Bell). It is interesting to note that this version of the crucifixion story has Longinus spear Christ before His death (Nicodemus 8:4), in direct contradiction to John's Gospel. This Gospel also mentions the centurion referred to in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, saying:
But when the centurion saw that Jesus thus crying out gave up the ghost, he glorified God, and said, Of a truth this was a just man (Nicodemus 8:5).
You may also read the Catholic Encyclopedia article about the Lance online:
Thurston, Herbert. 1907-1914. "Lance, the Holy." The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII, pgs. 773-774. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
The Catholic Encyclopedia bears the Nihil Obstat of Remy Lafort, Censor, and the Imprimatur of John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York. The original edition of this work contains a copy of the manuscript mentioned in the text which shows St. Longinus piercing the side of Christ.
Many great leaders, including the great kings Athelstan and Charlemagne are said to have possessed what they believed to have been the Lance of Longinus. While for years scholars dismissed these claims, based as they were on a single source, in 1950 a paper was published in a journal of mediaeval studies tracing other sources to establish this. The bibliographical information for this article is as follows:
Loomis, Laura Hibbard. 1950, October. "The Holy Relics of Charlemagne and King Athelstan: The Lances of Longinus and St. Mauricius." Speculum: A Journal of Mediaeval Studies, vol. XXV, no. 4.
Ms. Loomis is of the opinion that this Spear is the same one currently reposing in the Hofburg Treasure House in Vienna.
According to many claims, Hitler himself was interested in holy relics in general and the Lance of Longinus in particular. However, one must establish how much Hitler and the Nazi Party were actually interested in these relics and how much was merely attributed to him through what one historian calls "inter-historian incest." One of the best ways to do this is through contemporary accounts, such as the 1938 edition of Mr. John Gunther's Inside Europe (New York and London: Harper and Brothers), from which you may read online the section of "Chapter 1: Hitler" entitled "Attitude Toward Religion." There is no small amount of information that certain groups within the Nazi Party, and perhaps Hitler himself, were involved in occult activity of a number of varieties.
Mr. William Kalogonis has dedicated a very well-done webpage to studying both Hitler's and the Nazi movement's interest in the occult in general and in the Holy Lance in particular entitled The Lance, the Swastika, and the Merovingians. Most importantly, Mr. Kalogonis has made every attempt to cite all his sources for his material.
Several books have been published discussing Hitler's alleged obsession with the Holy Lance. Among these is Trevor Ravenscroft's famous The Spear of Destiny, and its sequel The Mark of the Beast, the latter being co-written with another historian, Tim Wallace-Murphy.
Ravenscroft, Trevor. 1973. The Spear of Destiny. New York: G. P. Putnam &
Sons.
This book was reprinted in 1991 by Samuel Weiser, Inc., of York Beach, Maine.
Ravenscroft, Trevor and Tim Wallace-Murphy, Ph. D. 1990. The Mark of the Beast.
London: Sphere.
This book was reprinted by Citadel Press of New York.
This book was reprinted once again in 1997 by Samuel Weiser, Inc., of York Beach, Maine.
While the publication of The Mark of the Beast postdates Mr. Ravenscroft's 1989 death, the writing of the book took place, according to Dr. Wallace-Murphy himself, between May and late August of 1988. My thanks go to Dr. Wallace-Murphy for providing the publication information on this book as well as correcting my earlier error that he was the book's posthumous editor. Dr. Wallace-Murphy can be reached via e-mail at tim@templartim.freeserv.uk. Readers may also be interested in visiting Dr. Wallace-Murphy and his associates' research group's homepage, the European Templar Heritage Research Network (ETHRN) Federation Webpage.
Ken Anderson gives a skeptical discussion of Hitler's involvement with the Lance in his book Hitler and the Occult (1995; Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books.)
Col. Dr. Howard A. Buechner, the first doctor into Dachau following the American liberation, teamed up with a man claiming to be a German Naval officer during World War II and wrote two very neglected books about Hitler's involvement with the Holy Lance, both of which are still in print from Thunderbird Press. They are as follows:
Buechner, Col. Howard A. and Kapitan Wilhelm Bernhart. Adolf Hitler and the Holy Lance. 300 Cuddihy Drive, Metairie, Louisiana, 70005: Thunderbird Press.
Buechner, Col. Howard A. and Kapitan Wilhelm Bernhart. Hitler's Ashes, Seeds of a New Reich. Metairie, Louisiana: Thunderbird Press.