Later traditions turned him into a Christian convert, but as Sabine Baring-Gould observed: "The name of Longinus was not known to the Greeks previous to the patriarch Germanus, in 715. An early tradition, found in a sixth or seventh century pseudepigraphal "Letter of Herod to Pilate", claims that Longinus suffered for having pierced Jesus, and that he was condemned to a cave where every night a lion came and mauled him until dawn, after which his body healed back to normal, in a pattern that would repeat till the end of time. No name for this soldier is given in the canonical Gospels the name Longinus is instead found in the Acts of Pilate, a text appended to the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. Longinus' 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. This person, unnamed in the Gospels, is further identified in some versions of the legend as the centurion present at the Crucifixion, who said that Jesus was the son of God, so he is considered as the first Christian. This act is said to have created the last of the Five Holy Wounds of Christ. The lance is called in Christianity the "Holy Lance" (lancea) and the story is related in the Gospel of John during the Crucifixion. His name first appeared in the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. Longinus is the name given to the unnamed Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and who in medieval and some modern Christian traditions is described as a convert to Christianity. Since the Gospels are silent on the name of the Roman soldier who pieced Jesus’ side, tradition and pius legends have come down to us that his name of Longinus. John actually say about the situation.īut one of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, and immediately there came out blood and water. Traditionally the name of the Roman soldier that pierced Christ’s side was Longinus. Is Longinus the name of the roman centurion who pierced Jesus?Īccording to tradition the answer is yes.
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