E06102: The Martyrdom of *Longinos (centurion at the Crucifixion, S00926), recounts the story of the centurion who attended the crucifixion of Christ. Retiring to Cappadocia, he was martyred and his head sent to Jerusalem where it was miraculously found by a blind widow. His body and the recovered head are buried at the village of Sandralis in Cappadocia. A pseudepigraphal postscript claims that the text is by Hesychius of Jerusalem. Written in Greek, probably in Cappadocia, or perhaps in Palestine, possibly in the 6th or 7th century.

ps.-Hesychius of Jerusalem, Martyrdom of Longinos (= Hesychius, Homily 19; CPG 6589 = BHG 988)

Summary:

1. Introduction.

2. Longinos was the only man who confessed Christ’s divinity, while the disciples themselves had forsaken Him.

3. After Christ’s resurrection, Longinos refuses to be bribed by the Jews and continues to confess Christ’s miracles.

4. He leaves the army and, accompanied by two of his soldiers, moves to Cappadocia and preaches the faith. He is the founder of the local Church, as other apostles evangelised other regions.

5. Incited by the Jews, Pontius Pilate denounces Longinos as an insurgent against the emperor. Imperial letters are issued against him, and soldiers are sent to arrest him in Cappadocia where Longinos lives as an ascetic on his private estate. The soldiers meet him and, not knowing who he is, ask about Longinos.

6. Notified by God about his imminent martyrdom, Longinos rejoices.

7. He generously entertains the soldiers and they disclose the imperial letters against him and his two companions. Three days later, the martyr invites the soldiers to his field and reveals to them his identity.

8. Astonished, the soldiers offer to spare his life.

9. Longinos beseeches them to allow him to accomplish his martyrdom.

10. His two companions arrive and Longinos announces to them the news of their martyrdom. He requests from the head of his household to be given clean and bright clothes, indicates a hill where his body is to be buried, and proceeds to his martyrdom by beheading.

11. The soldiers take his head to Pilate in Jerusalem. He displays it to the Jews, and has it thrown away outside the gates of the city. The head is buried in dung, but is preserved incorrupt.

12. A blind widow from Cappadocia arrives in Jerusalem with her son, hoping to be cured of her disability. During the visit, the boy falls ill and dies. In her prayers, she complains to God about the excessive harshness of her fate.

13. Longinos appears to her in a dream, and reveals to her his identity and the story of his martyrdom. He instructs her to seek his head in the dung, and promises to heal her blindness and let her see her son.

14. She goes to the place where the dung is dumped and, digging with her hands, she finds the head and is immediately cured. In another vision, Longinos instructs her to bury his head in the same coffin (larnax) as her son. He has been granted the boy by Christ as his companion.

15. The widow returns to Cappadocia and buries her son’s body next to the remains of Longinos, at the village of Sandralis – the martyr’s home. She gives thanks to God.

16. Postscript: Hesychius of Jerusalem found the text in a rudimentary form (ἐν σχεδαρίῳ) in the library of the Anastasis shrine in Jerusalem, and composed both the martyrdom account (ὁμολογία) and the encomium (ἐγκώμιον). No one should doubt that this is indeed the story of Longinos the centurion of Christ’s resurrection. The saint’s help is invoked for both the listeners and readers of the text.

Text: Aubineau 1980.
Summary: E. Rizos.