Spear of Destiny Quotes

“A year before Bramante’s death, in 1513, Pope Julius II commissioned Raphael to decorate the Vatican apartments and Michaelangelo to paint the Sistine chapel.    In 1527 Rome was sacked by the army of the holy Roman empire led by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the work once again ground to a halt. Over the next twenty years very little was done and then in 1546 Pope Paul II persuaded an elderly Michaelangelo to complete the building. Michaelangelo reverted back to the original plan of Bramante’s to create a church of Greek style cross plan.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“Vatican city is an independent state created by the Lateran treaty of 11th Feb 1929 which was signed by Pope Pius XI, the holy see and the Italian government.  It covers an area of 108 acres on the hill west of the Tiber river. It is separated from the rest of Rome by high walls on all sides except at the Piazza of St Peter. ”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“The obelisk was brought to Rome from Heliopolis in Egypt in 35AD by the Roman emperor Caligula. It was originally used in the circus and was moved to here in 1586 by Pope Sixtus V. The star at the top of the obelisk is the Chigi star named after Fabio Chigi who became Pope Alexander VII and under whose reign the Piazza was built. During the moving of the obelisk there was almost disaster when the ropes holding it began to break. A warning shout from a Genoese sailor saved the obelisk from falling and the palms used every palm Sunday thereafter came from his home town of Bordighera. They still do to this day.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“The best of Michaelangelo’s work on st Peter’s church would have been the dome itself but it was never completed during his lifetime and his plans were modified after his death by the architect Giacomo Della Porta. Later when we go inside I will tell you more about the church itself. Now in front of the church is the most beautiful, I think, architecture in the world, St Peter’s square. The Piazza Di San Pietro designed by Gianlorenzo Bernini. It was started in 1656 and completed in 1667. Now it’s called St Peter’s square but this is in fact wrong. It’s shape is not square but elliptical.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“Pope Julius II commissioned an architect by the name of Donato Bramante to do the work. Though it wouldn’t be until 1626, another 120 years before the work would be completed. Bramante died in 1514 and four other architects would work on the buildings. Namely Baldassare Peruzzi, Antonio Sangallo, Raphael and of course the most famous of them all, Michaelangelo.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“Vatican palace has been the official residence of the Popes since 1377. The original building was built in AD 319 by the Roman emperor Constantine who built a basilica over the tomb of St Peter himself, the first bishop of Rome. In the fifteenth century the building looked as if it would collapse and in 1452 the reconstruction was begun. The whole project soon ran out of money though and it was abandoned for over 50 years until 1506 when Pope Julius II gave instructions for the entire area of buildings to be demolished and the new St Peter’s to be built.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“The Pope reigns over one billion catholics throughout the world and is assisted by the college of Cardinals and synods of bishops, synods being church councils.   The building you are looking at now, St Peter’s church, is the largest church in the world.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“Over one thousand people live within these walls. The Vatican issues its own coins, postage stamps and has its own postal service. The head of state is his holiness Pope Benedict XVI. He is the 265th Pope of the Roman catholic church. He has full legislative and judicial powers with freedom under the Lateran treaty to organize his armed forces. He is also free to move or live through Italy as he should so desire.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“the bottom shelf you can see what is known as the Titulus Crucis or title of the cross. This was discovered here in the church in 1492. The same year as Colombus. This is a piece of wood written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. Legend has it that this piece was personally written by Pontius Pilate the Roman governor of Judaea at the time of Christ’s crucifixion. For many years it has been thought to be a forgery from the medieval period. However new evidence suggests that the inscriptions were written from right to left and not left to right as would be the case with a medieval translator. In the 19th century this relic was further proved by the discovery of a travel journal belonging to the Spanish pilgrim Egeria, a lady who had visited the holy land in the 4th century and recorded that she’d seen this relic in Jerusalem.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“two thorns from the crown that was placed on Christ’s head. On the next shelf down you can see, once again the reliquary with the cross on top, this contains the three pieces of the true cross once found by St Helena. On the bottom shelf is a nail used in the crucifixion.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“reliquary with the cross on top of it contains very small pieces of Christ’s crib and pieces of his sepulchre, his tomb and also pieces of the scourging pillar where he was whipped by the Romans.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“fragment of the good thiefs cross, the largest in the world. Now to the glass case.”    The shelves were filled with a variety of gold and silver ornaments, intricately decorated with adorning crosses.   “On the top shelf is the bone of an index finger said to belong to St Thomas.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“room was brightly lit, the floor and walls white marble. At the far end were four black marble, square coloumns supporting a large roof, atop of which was a simple gold cross. Behind this, at the far end of the room was a glass case surrounded by brown marble.   “It’s beautiful,” Natalie said.   “This is the chapel of the holy relics,”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“The mosaics on the ceiling were originally done in the fifth century during the reign of the Roman emperor Valentinian II. They were re-done in the fifteenth century. In the second room of the chapel there is a fourth century statue with the inscription to St Helena on it. The room opposite this one is the Gregorian chapel which was built between 1495 and 1520. It is an exact copy, a mirror image of the St Helena chapel.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“This is the chapel to St Helena. This and the two rooms off to the side are part of the original palace owned and used by Saint Helena herself. We are two metres below the current building. This Roman statue is of Saint Helena holding the true cross of Christ. This glass covering on the floor is protecting the soil brought from Jerusalem.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“The style of building over the altar is eighteenth century baroque. The eight granite coloumns supporting the roof are the original ones from the fourth century. The flooring and frescoes are twelfth century. Underneath the altar is an urn which contains the relics of the saints Anastasius and Caesarius.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“Helena had this holy place built for pilgrims who were unable to travel to Jerusalem. It is important to remember that the church did not take the name ’Holy cross’ until the middle ages.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“From the outside the church doesn’t appear to be old. The bell tower was added in the twelfth century when the church was renovated by pope Lucius II. He also added a nave, a porch and gave the church two aisles. Santa Croce was again renovated in the sixteenth century and its appearance today comes from the Cardinal priest Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini who was the head of the church before becoming pope Benedict XIV.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“church was built surrounding part of the imperial palace of St Helena which she converted to a place of worship around the year 320AD. She was the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine who became the great. In 325AD the church was converted to a basilica and the floor was covered with soil from Jeruslaem. This is why the church has the name Holy cross in Jerusalem even though we are standing in Rome.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“Helena left Jerusalem for Rome in 327AD. She took the ‘true’ pieces of the cross with the nails, rope and the tunic of Christ with her. They are currently on display in the basilica of the holy cross in Jerusalem where they have been since she placed them there.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“a temple built hundreds of years earlier by the Roman emperor Hadrian to be pulled down. This temple was built over the site of Christ’s tomb in Calvary. When her men excavated the ground under the temple they found the remains of the three crosses said to be those of Christ and the two thieves Dismas and Gestas who were crucified either side of him. Dismas went on to become a saint.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“Saint Helena,” Dennis said, “also known as the empress Helena was the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine the great. Birthdate not known but thought to be either 246 or 250AD. Died 330AD. Famous for finding the relics from Christ’s crucifixion. She found the nails and rope used to fix him to his cross. She also found the cross on which he was crucified. She found a total of three crosses and had a woman from Jerusalem, who was near death, touch each one. When the woman touched the third cross she was cured.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“accused and arrested so they asked him if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath. Jesus replied ’If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath will you not take hold of it and lift it out. Is a man not more valuable than a sheep. Therefore it is perfectly lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Jesus then turned to the man and said ’stretch out your hand’ The man stretched it out and it was healed.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“Then on April 30th 1945, Hitler and Eva Braun commited suicide as an American Lieutenant Walter William Horn took possession of it. He gave it to American General George S Patton. The rest of the story you all know from the vignette. It was returned by the Americans and today resides back at the Hofburg museum in Vienna, Austria.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“In 1912 Adolf Hitler saw the spear in the museum in Vienna and from that moment he became obsessed with it. Some say that the only reason he invaded Austria in 1938 was to capture the spear. Hitler kept it in St Catherine’s church in Nuremburg for six years believing the ancient legend that whoever owned the spear could not be defeated and held mystical, magical powers. He truly believed that his Nazi forces were now invincible.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“When the French revolutionary army in 1796 approached Nuremburg the city moved the collection to Vienna, Austria. Many Kings, Popes and Emperors added to it until we end up with what we see today.   The Holy Roman empire was disbanded in 1806 and the treasures remained in the custody of the Hapsburgs.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“During the reign of the Emperor Otto III in Constantinople, sometime around the year 1000AD a Roman nail was added to the spear. In 1084Ad holy Roman Emperor Henry IV added a silver band. In 1350 Charles IV added a gold band over the silver one. In 1424 Sigismund had relics including the lance moved to Nuremburg.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“Next the spear passed to the Roman Emperor Constantine who carried the spear into battle against the rival Emperor Maxentius on the Milvian bridge over the Tiber in Rome. Losing the battle Maxentius fled with his army and the bridge collapsed and Maxentius drowned. His body was recovered and decapitated Constantine became the sole ruler of the West. Founding the city of Constantinople on the older city of Byzantium Constantine kept the ‘holy lance’ or as it is now known the ‘spear of destiny’ there.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“The rest of the legion were not moved by this and soon the Rhone flowed with the blood of the entire legion. This whole event occurred in Aguanum, Switzerland. St Moritz in Switzerland is named after Maurice.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny

“Anyway the Theban legion led by Maurice, Candidus and Exupernis based in the east was ordered to Gaul, that’s France today, to assist with rebels in Burgundy. In Burgundy the legion was joined by the Emperor and once the rebel uprising was quelled the emperor ordered the killing of all civilians. Horrified at these instructions the christian legionaries refused. The Emperor was furious and ordered the legion to be decimated, that being every tenth man to be put to the sword, six hundred, as an example.”
― Julian Noyce, Spear of Destiny