Holy Lance
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 Lance gives a description that exactly matches the lance, the monastery gate, since the thirteenth century precisely, the name of Geghardavank (Monastery of the Holy Lance).
Commemoration of the Passion of Christ
Whilst the feast in honour of the instruments of Christ's Passion—the Holy Cross, Lance, Nails, and Crown of Thorns—called "Arma Christi", originated during the Middle Ages, this commemoration is of more recent origin. It appears for the first time in the Breviary of Meissen (1517) as a "festum simplex" for 15 November. The same Breviary has a feast of the Holy Face for 15 January and of the Holy Name for 15 March.