Historians to appear in History Channel documentary on the Holy Lance

Author: Michael O. Garvey

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Two Notre Dame scholars, Thomas F.X. Noble, director of the Universitys Medieval Institute, and Paul Cobb, associate professor of history, will be featured in a documentary film on the Holy Lance Thursday (Dec. 21) at 9 p.m. EST on the History Channel.

The film,The Spear of Christ,is one of the History ChannelsDecoding the Pastseries.It concerns the weapon mentioned in the New Testament account of a moment during Christs crucifixion (John 19:34) whenone of the soldiers stabbed his side with a lance, and at once there was a flow of blood and water.

According to accounts as early as the sixth century, pilgrims to Jerusalem venerated an object believed by local Christians to be the same lance, and varying and controversial reports have been given of the relics authenticity, whereabouts and significance ever since.The Spear of Christ,shot in several countries, examines the histories of four surviving artifactsin Vienna, Poland, the Vatican, and Armeniaeach of which has been proffered as the Holy Lance.

Noble is an expert in the Carolingian world, late antiquity, papal history and medieval Rome. Cobb is an expert in Islamic social and cultural history, comparative history, the Crusades, historiography and biography, and Christian-Muslim relations.

Contact:Thomas F.X. Noble at 574-631-6604 or Noble.8@nd.edu or Paul Cobb at 574-631-3035 or Cobb.3@nd.edu or Ken Winikur, producer at Northern Light Productions, at 617-789-4344×203 or kwinikur@nlprod.com

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