Happy St. Longinus the Centurion's Day, 15 March

From the Medieval Saints Yahoo Group:

St. Longinus the Centurion, martyr (legendary)

Martyred in Cappadocia in the 1st century

Commemorated March 15 (October 16, Eastern Church)

An earlier cultus of Longinus was revived and strengthened with the discovery of the Holy Lance in a church of Antioch during the First Crusade, which had transformed the morale of the Christian soldiers.

In art, Saint Longinus is a soldier piercing Christ's side at the Crucifixion. He may also be depicted (1) as a soldier with a lance; (2) pointing to his eyes (he received his sight when the water from Christ's side fell upon him); or (3) with a lance, flinging wide his arms.


Longinus the Centurion
http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Feasts-and-Saints/October/Oct-16.html#1

The Holy Martyr Longinus the Centurion, a Roman soldier, served in Judea under the command of the Governor, Pontius Pilate. During the time of the execution of our Savior Jesus Christ, it was the detachment of soldiers under the command of Longinus, which stood watch around Golgotha, at the very foot of the holy Cross. Longinus and his soldiers were eyewitnesses of the final moments of the earthly life of the Lord, and of the great and awesome portents that appeared at His death.

These events jolted the soul of the soldier. Longinus believed in Christ and confessed before everyone that, "Truly this was the Son of God" (Mt. 27:54). (According to Church Tradition, Longinus was the soldier who pierced the side of the Crucified Savior with a spear, and from the outflowing of blood and water received healing from an eye affliction).

After the Crucifixion and Burial of the Savior, Longinus with his company stood watch at the Sepulchre of the Lord. The soldiers were present at the All-Radiant Resurrection of Christ. The Jews bribed them to bear false witness and say that His disciples had stolen away the Body of Christ, but Longinus and two of his comrades refused to be seduced by the Jewish gold. Having believed in the Savior, the soldiers accepted Baptism from the apostles and decided to forsake military service. Longinus left Judea and set out preaching about Christ Jesus the Son of God in his native land, in Cappadocia. Two of his comrades also followed after him.

The fiery words of actual participants of the great occurrences in Judea swayed the hearts and minds of the Cappadocians; Christianity began quickly to spread about in the city and the surrounding villages. Having learned of this, the Jewish elders persuaded Pilate to send a company of soldiers to Cappadocia to kill Longinus and his comrades. When the soldiers arrived at the village of Longinus, the former centurion himself came out to meet the soldiers and took them to his home. After a meal, the soldiers revealed the purpose of their arrival, not knowing that the master of the house was the very man whom they were seeking. Then Longinus and his fellows identified themselves and told the surprised soldiers to carry out their duty.

The soldiers wanted to set the saints free and advised them to flee, but the saints refused to do this, showing firmness of will to accept suffering for Christ. The holy martyrs were beheaded, and their bodies were buried there where the saints were martyred. Their heads were sent to Pilate. Pilate gave orders to cast the martyrs on the trash-heap outside the city walls. After a while a certain blind woman arrived in Jerusalem to pray at the holy places. St. Longinus appeared to her in a dream and said that she should find his head and bury it. They led the blind woman to the rubbish heap. Having touched the head of the martyr, the woman received her sight. She reverently brought the venerable head to Cappadocia and buried it.

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The Spear Of Longinus
(for the full article, see: http://sxws.com/charis/relics8.htm)

"One of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side." That is all we know from the biblical account, but that is not the end of the story of either the soldier or the spear he used. At the time of the Crucifixion, Jews had been fighting against Roman oppression for centuries. To say there was no love lost between the people of Israel and Rome's legionnaires would certainly be to understate the enmity that existed between the two parties. Yet, for some reason and by some means both of which are not related to Scripture, Roman hagiography has come up not only with the soldier's name, but even his post-crucifixion biography.

The soldier, we are told, was called Longinus. Now I was unable to learn how long Longinus had served in the Legion, but I do know the "enlistment" period for a common man was 12 years, after which, assuming they survived, various compensations were sometimes offered. Now this is significant, since Rome's accounts tell us that Longinus was nearly blind ? a condition which, I should imagine, would surely have affected his usefulness as a soldier. In any case, the legend assures us that Longinus was not long blind, for after he thrust his spear into the side of Christ, some of the blood and lymph (water) from Jesus fell into his eyes. It was then he exclaimed, "Indeed, this was the Son of God!" as recorded in Mark 15:39.

According to the hagiography, Longinus, now converted, left the army and studied under the Apostles, and ultimately became a monk (and this at a time when there not yet were monasteries) at Caesarea in Cappodocia. There, poor Longinus ran afoul of the law because of his new faith and, we are told, was involved with yet another miraculous cure. The authorities tormented him by forcing all his teeth from his mouth and cutting off his tongue. Despite these tortures, it is said that Longinus continued to speak clearly, then picked up a handy axe and smashed several idols as the governor watched.

When Longinus broke the idols, the demons that had resided in them attacked the governor, depriving him of his sight and driving him mad. This was the occasion for another miraculous healing involving Longinus. The centurion-turned-monk told the governor he would regain his sight when Longinus was dead, so the governor ordered him killed. When he was beheaded, some of his blood splashed into the governor's eyes, restoring his sight. At this miracle, the governor, we are told, was converted to the Christian faith.

We are told that the relics of who now is known as "St. Longinus" are located in the church of St. Augustine in Rome. His lance, the very weapon said to have pierced the sinless and holy body of Jesus Christ, is said to be contained in one of the four pillars which surmount the altar in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. How the lance made the trip to Rome is something I have yet to discover. The various versions of Catholic history and hagiography... are not always in agreement.

According to other legends, the spear came into the hands of Herod the Great. Constantine had it for a while, even claiming he was guided by Providence, by way of the spear, in his victory at Milvian bridge, which resulted in Christianity becoming the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire. Constantine used the spear while surveying the site for his new city, Constantinople. After him, we are informed that Theodosius, the Spanish-born Emperor of the Eastern Empire had possession of it a while, as did Alaric, the Goth who sacked Rome. Theodoric, who turned back Attila's hordes, owned it for a while, as did Justinian. We are told it passed into the hands of Charles Martel, who defeated the Moslems in the Battle at Poitiers. Legend claims the lance led Charlemagne to victory in 47 battles, but the Emporper died when he accidentally dropped it. Five Saxon emperors who came after Charlemagne possessed the lance, as did seven Hohenstauffen emperors, among them Barbarossa, Frederick II and Kaiser Wilhelm. There were other owners as well.

Napoleon tried to claim the lance as spoils of war after the battle of Austerlitz, but the relic had been sneaked out of Vienna before he got there. Some time after the threat from Napolean ceased, the lance was restored to Vienna, where it resided in the Hoffburg Museum until 1938.

The Spear of Longinus, also known as the Spear of Destiny, the Holy Spear and other names, was of surpassing importance to the leaders of the infamous Third Reich. According to the legends surrounding this "sacred" relic, whoever owned the spear would be the controlling force in world power politics. Gestapo head Heinrich Himmler made a study of the spear and its history. Adolph Hitler, who was something of a nut concerning religious relics, lusted for the spear from the moment he first saw it in the Vienna museum in 1912...

In the Arthurian legend, Chretien de Troyes tells how Parsifal, an honorable and sinless knight, undertook a trial to show his worthiness to succeed a godly king who was dying. Parsifal sat on a magical chair. Now this was a risky undertaking, for anyone who sat on the chair and was not the knight selected by God to be guardian of both the spear of Longinus and the Holy Grail was put to death. Parsifal passed the test, was made king and kept the spear and grail with him until his death.

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More on St. Longinus:
http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0315.htm#long

http://www.oca.org/pages/orth_chri/Feasts-and-Saints/October/Oct-16.html#1

UPDATE
Doesn't anybody think it's cool that I found a picture of the Duke as St. Longinus (he played the role in "The Greatest Story Ever Told")?

I thought for sure that at least one of my "manly" readers would have commented on that.
;0)