Who was Saint Longinus and what is his story?

There are many famous characters whose names aren’t recorded in the New Testament but who we know about through tradition and other extra-Biblical sources. For example, the “woman at the well” whom Jesus talks to, as recorded in John 4:4-30, is in fact the longest conversation that Christ has with any other person in the Bible, but her name isn’t listed there! She is remembered as St. Photini (or “Photine”, “Photina”, etc.) by church tradition, which is also where we get the details of her life following her encounter with Christ.

The story of St. Longinus

Saint Longinus is the same sort of saint. “Longinus” is the name given to the Roman centurion who served under Pontius Pilate, the governor who oversaw Christ’s execution, and was said to have stood at the foot of the cross and witnessed Christ’s death. According to Eastern Orthodox tradition, St. Longinus was the one who said, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54) following the earthquake that occurred after Jesus’ death. He was also the soldier who pierced Christ’s side with a spear to make sure that he was dead (John 19:34). According to tradition, Longinus had bad eyes, but when the blood and water came out of Christ’s side, it fell on Longinus’ face and restored his sight. The gospel account implies that an eyewitness reported the detail about Christ’s side being pierced—“The one who saw it has testified to this” (John 19:35)—and tradition holds that eyewitnesss to be Longinus.

Saint Longinus was also thought to be one of the soldiers who were paid to stand guard over Christ’s tomb in order to ensure that no one would steal the body. When Jesus rose from the dead, they were astounded and fled, and when the Jewish authorities tried to bribe them to lie and say that the body had been stolen, they refused. Instead they returned to their native land of Cappadocia where they spread the word about the resurrection of Christ.

Eventually Jewish authorities persuaded Pontius Pilate to send soldiers to kill St. Longinus and his companions. When the soldiers arrived at his village, St. Longinus came out and greeted them, inviting them into his home. After they had eaten, the soldiers explained to St. Longinus what their mission was, not knowing that the man who had just given them dinner was in fact their target. When they asked him if he knew where they could find Longinus, the saint revealed his identity to them and told them to fulfill their mission. The soldiers were aghast at this revelation, however, and wanted to let Longinus go. But he and his companions insisted that it was time for them to suffer for Christ, and at their insistence they were beheaded. Saint Longinus would later appear to people in dreams, offering help and comfort, and his relics would go on to cause miraculous healings.

The different accounts of Catholics and Orthodox

Like many of the first-century saints, there are a variety of stories and legends surrounding St. Longinus. It’s difficult to verify many of the details of his story, as the tales surrounding him are often contradictory or incomplete. According to some Catholic traditions, for example, St. Longinus was brought before the governor, where he destroyed several idols, whereas in the Orthodox account, he seems to have died in the village in which the soldiers found him.

Many other miracles are attested to him, especially those related to the spear he used to pierce the side of Christ and the blood that had allegedly been taken from it. Similar to the many legends surrounding St. Patrick, it’s difficult to verify these accounts. How do we reconcile the various stories, and which can be trusted?

There are a few things that we should be clear about. Just because something isn’t preserved in texts doesn’t mean it didn’t happen or that it’s “made up.” Though most people don’t realize it, much of what we know about Christianity isn’t explicitly in the text of the Bible; much of it was preserved through parallel sources to the Bible like the liturgy, the hymnography of the church (meaning the songs that were sung in church to honor various saints), and the collection of Apostolic Tradition.

Saint Paul even points out Apostolic Tradition as a valid source of knowledge in his second letter to the Thessalonians, in which he admonishes them to “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter (2 Thess 2:15). Paul, in other words, indicated that the writings that became the New Testament and the oral teachings of the apostles were both authoritative.

As the Church continued to grow, it wasn’t like miraculous things stopped happening. The Church continued to produce miracle-working saints every generation, and she didn’t neglect to record the events of their lives in hymns, writings, iconography, and oral tradition. There were many paths, in other words, to preserving the memory of the lives of the saints.

What’s difficult about saints like St. Longinus is that the events of their lives were very early in the Church’s existence. It’s important to remember that Christianity was a persecuted religion for the first three centuries of its existence, and prior to that, things were often difficult to sort out, some stories became conflated, and some things simply aren’t clear to us several millennia later.

If you’re just interested in the historical details, therefore, there’s not much else to say. It’s difficult to get a lot of evidence for any ancient accounts, not just for Christianity. Aristotle, for example, famously wrote dialogues that were supposedly even better than Plato’s dialogues, but we only know that because the ancient Roman author Cicero mentions them—the actual dialogues themselves have been lost to the ages.

The Troparion and Kontakian of Saint Longinus

But if you’re a traditional Christian looking for resources for prayer to and veneration of the saints, then I would look to the historic hymns of the church. In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, every day of the year is dedicated to at least one saint or feast, and there’s are usually two short hymns (one called a “troparion” and one called a “kontakion” in Greek). These hymns are usually focused, not on the exactness of the historical details, but on the spiritual interpretation of the events in the life of the saint, that is, the deeper spiritual truths that elevate the mind to Christ in worship and prayer.

The Orthodox Troparion hymn to St. Longinus is:

Longinus, you beheld the King of Glory
who was nailed to the Cross, yet shone on those in darkness.
You were enlightened by His rays and became a martyr
and save those who cry:
Glory to Him who gave you strength!
Glory to Him who granted you a crown!
Glory to Him who through you grants healing to all!

And the Kontakion hymn is:

The Church rejoices in gladness
on the day of the commemoration of the ever-memorable athlete Longinus!
She cries out: “You are my strength and support, O Christ!”

You can read more about St. Longinus’ life here.