The Centurion at the Cross
The canonical Gospels record that a centurion present at the Crucifixion, seeing what took place, confessed that Jesus was the Son of God (Matthew 27:54). Christian tradition gives this soldier the name Longinus, a name found in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus and probably derived from the Greek word for spear or lance (lonche).
Tradition further identifies Longinus with the soldier who pierced the side of the crucified Christ with a lance, from which flowed blood and water. In the Orthodox synaxarion he is described as a centurion who commanded the soldiers stationed at Golgotha.
Conversion and Mission
Following his confession, Longinus stood watch at the tomb of Christ and, by tradition, witnessed the Resurrection. When the Jewish leaders sought to suppress the news by bribing the guards, Longinus and two of his fellow soldiers refused to be corrupted.
He received baptism from the apostles, abandoned his military career, and journeyed to Cappadocia to preach the Gospel together with his two companions. Their witness is credited with advancing the spread of Christianity throughout that region.
Martyrdom and Relics
According to the synaxarion, the Jewish elders prevailed upon Pilate to send soldiers into Cappadocia, where Longinus and his companions were beheaded. Their bodies were buried locally, but Pilate ordered Longinus's head to be thrown onto a trash-heap outside the city walls.
Tradition relates that a blind widow of Cappadocia, guided by visions of the saint, found his head upon the refuse heap and recovered her sight when she touched it; the saint is also said to have appeared to her in a dream beside her deceased son, revealing his heavenly glory.
In the Western tradition his relics are associated with Mantua in Italy, where his body was said to have been lost and rediscovered together with the Holy Sponge, with portions later distributed to Prague and elsewhere.
Veneration
The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates Longinus on October 16, as does the Roman Catholic Church (which formerly kept his feast on March 15). The Armenian Apostolic Church observes him on October 22 and the Coptic Orthodox Church on November 14.
A legend that developed after the tenth century holds that Longinus suffered from an affliction of the eyes and was healed when blood from the pierced side of Christ fell upon them, an event tied in tradition to his coming to faith. He is venerated as a patron of military personnel and of the blind.
