Editing Holy Lance (section)

=== Vagharshapat ===
[[File:Holy-lance-Echmiadzin.jpg|thumb|The Holy Lance in [[Vagharshapat]]]]

A Holy Lance is conserved in [[Vagharshapat]] (previously known as Echmiadzin), the religious capital of [[Armenia]]. It was previously held in the monastery of [[Geghard]].The first source that mentions it is a text ''Holy Relics of Our Lord Jesus Christ'', in a thirteenth-century Armenian manuscript.  According to this text, the spear which pierced Jesus was to have been brought to Armenia by the [[Apostle Thaddeus]]. The manuscript does not specify precisely where it was kept, but the ''Holy Relics'' gives a description that exactly matches the lance, the monastery gate (since the thirteenth century precisely), and the name of [[Geghard]]avank (Monastery of the Holy Lance).<ref name="Ballian 2018">{{cite book |author-last=Ballian |author-first=Anna |contribution=Liturgical Objects from Holy Etchmiadzin |title=Armenia: Art, Religion, and Trade in the Middle Ages |pages=250–259 |editor-last=Evans |editor-first=Helen C. |date=2018 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |location=New York |isbn=9781588396600 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ezNtDwAAQBAJ |via=[[Google Books]] |access-date=2023-08-04}}</ref>{{rp|254–256}}

In 1655, the French traveler [[Jean-Baptiste Tavernier]] was the first Westerner to see this relic in Armenia. In 1805, the Russians captured the monastery and the relic was moved to Tchitchanov Geghard, [[Tbilisi]], Georgia.<ref>Christopher H. Zakian and Fr. Krikor Maksoudian (2024). [https://armenianchurch.us/the-holy-lance-in-armenian-tradition-legend/ The Holy Lance in Armenian Tradition & Legend]. The Armenian Church.</ref>

It was later returned to Armenia, and is still on display at the [[Alex Manoogian#Legacy and honors|Manoogian museum]] in Vagharshapat, enshrined in a 17th-century reliquary. Every year during the commemoration of the apostles St. Thaddeus and [[Bartholomew the Apostle|St. Bartholomew]] the relic is brought out for worship.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Holy Lance "Geghard" Will be Brought out on December 04 |url=https://beta.armenianchurch.org/en/news/holy-lance-%E2%80%9Cgeghard%E2%80%9D/10090 |access-date=2023-11-16 |website=beta.armenianchurch.org |language=en}}</ref>