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Longinus (Greek language: Λογγίνος) is the name of the Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance, who in apostolic and some modern Christian traditions is described as a convert to Christianity. His name first appeared in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. The lance is called in Catholic Christianity the "Holy Lance" ( lancea) and the story is related in the Gospel of John during the Crucifixion.John 19:34. This act is said to have created the last of the Five Holy Wounds of Christ.
This person, unnamed in the , is further identified in some versions of the story as the centurion present at the Crucifixion, who said that Jesus was the son of God, so he is considered as one of the first Christians and Roman converts. Longinus's legend grew over the years to the point that he was said to have converted to Christianity after the Crucifixion, and he is traditionally venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and several other Christian communions.
The name is probably Latinized into a common cognomen of the Cassia gens, from the Greek lónchē (λόγχη), the word used for the spear mentioned in John .See at Kontos; "The name cannot be ascribed to any tradition; its obvious derivation from logchē (λόγχη), spear or lance, shows that it was, like that of Saint Veronica, fashioned to suit the event," noted Elizabeth Jameson, The History of Our Lord as Exemplified in Works of Art 1872:160. It first appears lettered on an illumination of the Crucifixion beside the figure of the soldier holding a spear, written, perhaps contemporaneously, in horizontal Greek letters, LOGINOS (ΛΟΓΙΝΟϹ), in the Syriac Rabula Gospels in the year 586, in the Laurentian Library, Florence. The spear used is known as the Holy Lance, and more recently, especially in occult circles, as the "Spear of Destiny", which was revered at Jerusalem by the sixth century, although neither the centurion nor the name "Longinus" were invoked in any surviving report. As the "Lance of Longinus", the spear figures in the legends of the Holy Grail.
Blindness or other eye problems are not mentioned until after the tenth century. Petrus Comestor was one of the first to add an eyesight problem to the legend and his text can be translated as "blind", "dim-sighted" or "weak-sighted". The Golden Legend says that he saw celestial signs before conversion and that his eye problems might have been caused by illness or age. (1995). 9780815320623, Routledge. ISBN 9780815320623 The touch of Jesus's blood cures his eye problem:
The body of Longinus is said to have been lost twice, but discovered at Mantua, together with the Holy Sponge stained with Christ's blood, wherewith it was told—extending Longinus's role—that Longinus had assisted in cleansing Christ's body when it was taken down from the cross. The relic enjoyed a revived cult in the late 13th century under the patronage of the Bonacolsi.
The relics are said to have been divided and then distributed to Prague (St. Peter and Paul Basilica, Vyšehrad) and elsewhere. Greek sources assert that he suffered martyrdom in Cappadocia. The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Washington, DC, purports to have a holy relic, a fragment of bone, of Saint Longinus. "Longinus of Cappadociathe, centurion, martyr", Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St.John the Baptist, Washington DC.
The statue of Saint Longinus, sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is one of four in the niches beneath the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. A spearpoint fragment said to be from the Holy Lance is also conserved in the Basilica.
Longinus and his legend are the subject of the Moriones Festival held during Holy Week on the island of Marinduque, the Philippines.
hagiography fragments on St. Longinus from 11th–13th century found in Dubrovnik indicate his veneration in this area in Middle Ages. There is altarpiece St. Longinus and St. Gaudentius by an anonymous author from 17th century in St. Anthony the Great Catholic parish church in Veli Lošinj.
The Longinus cross (German: Longinuskreuz) is a special form of the Arma Christi cross, which occurs mainly in the Black Forest, but also occasionally in other regions of South Germany.
Folk tradition explains the association with missing objects with a tale from the saint's days in Rome. It is said he was of short stature and, as such, had unimpeded view of the underside of tables in crowded parties. Due to this, he would find and return objects dropped on the ground by the other attendants.
Accounts vary regarding the promised offering of three hops, citing either deference to an alleged limping of the saint or a plea to the Holy Trinity.
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