Saint Longinus
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| Saint Longinus | |
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| Born | 1st century, Cappadocia |
| Died | 1st century, Cappadocia |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church Armenian Apostolic Church Eastern Catholic Churches |
| Major shrine | Inside the Basilica di San Pietro, in the Vatican. |
| Feast | October 16: Eastern Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Catholic Churches; October 22: Armenian Apostolic Church. |
| Attributes | Military attire |
Saint Longinus is the name given in medieval and some modern Christian traditions to a Roman soldier who pierced Jesus in his side with a lance while he was on the Cross. The Longinus legend identifies this soldier as the centurion present, who testified, "In truth this man was son of God"[1]
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[edit] Origins of the legend
No name for this soldier is given in the Gospels; the name Longinus comes from the pseudepigraphal Gospel of Nicodemus that was appended to the apocryphal Acts of Pilate. Sabine Baring-Gould observed, "The name of Longinus was not known to the Greeks previous to the patriarch Germanus, in 715. It was introduced amongst the Westerns from the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. There is no reliable authority for the Acts and martyrdom of this saint."[2]
The name is probably Latinized from Greek longche (λόγχη), a spear.[3] It is lettered on an illumination of the Crucifixion beside the figure of the soldier holding a spear, written, perhaps contemporaneously, in horizontal Greek letters, Loginos, in the Syriac gospel manuscript illuminated by a certain Rabulas in the year 586, in the Laurentian Library, Florence. The spear used is known as the Holy Lance, more recently, especially in occult circles as the "Spear of Destiny", which was revered at Jerusalem by the sixth century, though 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. In some medieval folklore, e.g. the Golden Legend,[4] the touch of Jesus's blood cures his blindness.
The body of Longinus, twice recovered and lost, was asserted to have been found once more at Mantua in 1304, together with the Holy Sponge stained with Christ's blood, wherewith it was told— extending Longinus' 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 late thirteenth century Bologna under the combined impetus of the Grail romances, the local tradition of eucharistic miracles, the chapel consecrated to Longinus and the Holy Blood in the Benedictine monastery church of Sant'Andrea,[5] and the patronage of the Bonacolsi.[6]
The relics were divided and have been distributed to Prague and elsewhere, the body taken to the Church of San Agostino in the Vatican at Rome. In Sardinia it was also asserted that the body of Longinus had been come upon and Greek sources assert that he had suffered martyrdom in Gabala, Cappadocia.
[edit] Present-day veneration
Longinus is venerated, generally as a martyr, in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Apostolic Church. In the Roman Martyrology he is mentioned, without any indication of martyrdom, in the following terms: "At Jerusalem, commemoration of Saint Longinus, who is venerated as the soldier opening the side of the crucified Lord with a lance."[7] In the Armenian Apostolic Church, his feast is commemorated on October 22.
The statue of Saint Longinus, (illustration), one of four in the niches of the crossing in the Basilica di San Pietro, Rome, was sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The spearpoint fragment from the Holy Lance is conserved in the Basilica of St. Peter.
[edit] In popular culture
- In George Stevens' 1965 film The Greatest Story Ever Told, actor John Wayne appears in a brief cameo as Longinus.[8]
[edit] Gallery
 Longinus pierces the side of Christ. From a fresco by Fra Angelico. |
 Christ on the Cross, the three Marys, John the Evangelist, and Saint Longinus |
 Statue of Longinus. Sagrada Família. |
[edit] References
- ^ Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39.
- ^ Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, vol. III (Edinburgh) 1914, sub "March 15: S[aint] Longinus M[artyr]"; Baring-Gould adds, "The Greek Acts pretend to be by S. Hesychius (March 28th), but are an impudent forgery of late date." (on-line text).
- ^ See at Kontos; "The name cannot be ascribed to any tradition; its obvious derivation from longchē (λόγχη), spear or lance, shows that it was, like that of St. Veronica, fashioned to suit the event," noted Elizabeth Jameson, The History of Our Lord as Exemplified in Works of Art 1872:160.
- ^ Golden Legend: Longinus
- ^ The church was rebuilt as a grand basilica to designs by Leon Battista Alberti in 1472
- ^ R. Capuzzo, "Note sulla tradizione e sul culto del sangue di Cristo nella Mantova medievale", Storia e arte religiosa a Mantova (Mantua) 1991, noted by Trevor Dean, The Towns of Italy in the Later Middle Ages, "Civic Religion: selected sources" (2000:80).
- ^ "Hierosolymae, commemoratio sancti Longini, qui miles colitur latus Domini cruci affixi lancea aperiens" - Martyrologium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2001 ISBN 88-209-7210-7), Die 16 octobris
- ^ Clarke, Howard W. (2003). The Gospel of Matthew and Its Readers: A Historical Introduction to the First Gospel. Indiana University Press, 241. ISBN 025334235X.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Reliquary of Saint Longinus
- Catholic Forum: St. Longinus
- St. Longinus
- The Holy Lance of Longinus
