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Saint Longinus in Roman armour with his spear and a relic of Christ’s blood, painted by Giulio Romano about 1531

Saint Longinus

The name tradition gives the soldier who opened Christ’s side with a spear

Honoured as
the centurion at the Cross
Western calendar
16 October
Orthodox calendar
16 October (29 October on the old calendar)

Longinus is the name tradition gives the soldier who "with a spear opened his side", and it may already be written above him in a Syriac manuscript painted in 586. The Orthodox honour him as the centurion who stood at the foot of the Cross and confessed, "Truly this was the Son of God", and their tradition tells that the blood and water from the wound healed his eyes, and that he left the army, preached Christ in his native Cappadocia and was beheaded there. The Gospels themselves give the soldier no name, so all we know of Longinus beyond that day comes from the Church's tradition.

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