[If you have stumbled upon this page without having context of the information below, this is part of our research into the Holy Lance of Antioch. To start your journey, click here – Destiny of the Lance.]

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Michael drops an email to the team:

Research on the Shroud (which also fills in gaps on the Lance).

This is some seriously good scholarship. Some of the best I have encountered. Saves me a ton of time. In my gut this is right. Like I thought, in between all the wars, earthquakes and fires, the holy relics brought to Antioch by Sts. Peter, Paul and Barnabase during the Fall of Jerusalem in 70, were jealously protected by the Antiochians, where the believers were first called “Christians”, where the Gentile Church started, and at that time is was a city of 500,000 and the third largest in the Roman empire after Rome and Alexandria, then buried (at least the lance was). The lance work is very interesting.

This research takes us from 33 AD to 1098 AD and the first crusade. My earlier work takes us from 1098 and to present.

Jack Markwardt. (1998). Antioch and the Shroud [incl. research on the Holy Lance]. Shroud.com.

https://www.fbcoverup.com/docs/library/1998-Antioch-and-the-Shroud-by-Jack-Markwardt-Shroud-dotcom-1998.pdf

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A few days later, the excavator, who has gone back to the dig site after more than a decade since last there, pulls up this piece of burlap, a Templar coin, and old nail. The excavator also sends a note (read below) as well.

Excavator: This single coin was evidently meant to date the items and the spear in the possession of Joan, the last Count of Toulouse, heiress of Raymond and Alfonso, and participant in the last crusade and the miraculous evacuation of Acre. Evidently (?), she carried the Holy Lance with her to the crusade, and the miraculous evacuation of Acre by an unknown sailor recorded by historians. This coin dates the package to this time. Apparently, Raymond had the Holy Nail from his capture of Jerusalem in the First Crusade.

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Team member John is quick to identify the coin. He writes the team:

http://www.ancientresource.com/lots/medieval_crusades/knights_templar_coins.html

Knights Templar France. Philip IV Le Bel, 1268-1314 AD.

Nice silver gros tournois struck 1285-1290 AD. ref: Duplessy 213; Ciani 201. 26 mm, 4.16 g. Nicely centered, crisp detail, bright silvery tone with some darker areas. Ex-Lille, France gallery. #CM2436: $499

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In the meantime, we fast forward to June 2017, almost one thousand years since the First Crusades ended, deFango examines the old letters that were found with the spear. Be careful, deFango! Don’t burn those letters. They may be important.

A candlelight surpise from our letters Cicada 3301

Tyre and Tripoli fell before Raymond, who held the spear, as the crusaders marched towards Jerusalem. Raymond continued to follow the advice of Peter Bartholomew who originally had the vision that led to finding the spear at Antioch.

Raymond won the battle for Jerusalem but refused to be made king and instead carried out the humble, ritual baptism in the River Jordan that Peter advised him to do. He also baptized his two-year old son Alphonso Jordan at the same time.

There was one battle left for Raymond to secure Jerusalem and that was at Ascalon; where, it is said, Raymond “lost” the Spear of Antioch and it was never seen again. The likelihood of the spear that was so important to winning Jerusalem getting “lost” is doubtful. More likely that the vows that Raymond and the other Crusaders made to the Roman Catholic Church bound them to turn over any relics found in the holy land to the Pope in Rome.

Raymond continued in his battles to secure the road to the Holy Lands but without any word of the spear being in his custody or used in battle. His wife, Elvira of Castile and his son, Alphonso Jordon returned to France, more than likely with the spear and the other holy relics that Raymond might have be given (or found) in Jerusalem. These relics would, by necessity, need to have remained secret and probably protected by Elvira and her descendants, even though there is no outer history of the spear or other relics being openly displayed by Elvira or Alphonso Jordon.

The is a long history of grail items that were kept by Elvira’s Spanish cousins who claimed to own the chalice of the Last Supper and many other blood relics of Jesus of Nazareth.

The trail of the provenance of the Spear of Antioch grows rather cold once it goes from queen to queen in Occitania. The legends and stories of the grail blossom in this very area of France and Spain in the royal houses descended from Raymond IV of Toulouse.

Eventually after years of hiding in Leon, the spear and the other relics of Raymond might have come into the hands of Conrad III who placed them in what was known as the Imperial Regalia that became the property of the Hapsburg dynasty over the centuries.

The location of the Spear of Antioch has been mixed together with the Spear of Maurice and the two often are confused. One spear is a humble centurion’s spearhead and the other was held as the greatest Christian talisman of victory by over forty kings down through the ages. Both alleged to be the spear of Longinus. Both were revered by many over the years. The true history is still unfolding and we may yet see the true provenance of the Longinus, yet.

Learn more about the Siege of Antioch in 1098 AD

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Learn about the Battle of Ascalon in 1099 AD. This video does not mention that Raymond carried the spear into battle, which he did.

Have you started playing the Glass Bead Game? If you have landed on this web page, you might be interested in starting your adventure by joining our search for the destiny of the spear of destiny.