The life of St Longinus the Centurion
From ancient times the Church has remembered these two figures as one man, giving him the name Longinus; the name and the identification first appear in a text outside the New Testament itself, and no independent record of his later life survives.
According to the tradition that grew up around him, Longinus was a Cappadocian who, moved by what he had witnessed at the cross and by the Resurrection that followed, left the army together with two companions and returned home to preach the Gospel. Word of this reached the authorities in Judea, who sent soldiers to put him to death; Longinus is said to have received them warmly as guests before revealing that he himself was the man they sought, and he and his companions were beheaded without resistance. He is honored by the Church as one of the first to confess Christ from the very foot of the cross.
