Official feasts used to be an important part of the human community. People would gather together to remember something sacred, express their faith and hope for the future, and / or just be together formally, recognizing each other as being part of a shared community. Few things express a desire for shared companionship and social intimacy more than dining together. Sadly, the gathering together for feasting is increasingly a relic of the past – at least here in the West.
It need not be so! Today we will remember the ancient feasts.
The Feast Day of St. Longinus
This is a Christian religious celebration of Longinus, a 1st century Roman soldier who is said to have pierced the body of Jesus Christ with a lance during His crucifixion. This story is relayed in the Gospel of John, however, the text does not provide the name of the soldier. Instead, his name was passed down by tradition, wherein it is said he subsequently converted to Christianity.
Veneration of Longinus began in the early Church, though it was not universal. Some early Church legends describe him as a person who undergoes eternal torture. The veneration eventually became the primary view and Longinus became a well-celebrated figure by the early Middle Ages. There are many legends surrounding Longinus, including a prominent one wherein Longinus was cured of blindness as a result of his actions at the crucifixion. He has been invoked by Catholics throughout history for help in finding lost objects.
In addition, the lance used during the Crucifixion is also the source for centuries of myths and legends. It is known as “the Holy Lance” in traditional Catholic circles, and in modern nomenclature it is often referred to as “the Spear of Destiny.”
Longinus is a patron saint of military personnel and the blind.
This person, unnamed in the Gospels, is further identified in some versions of the story as the centurion present at the Crucifixion, who said that Jesus was the son of God, so he is considered as one of the first Christians and Roman converts. Longinus’s 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.
Origins
No name for this soldier is given in the canonical Gospels; the name Longinus is instead found in the apocryphalGospel of Nicodemus. Longinus was not originally a saint in Christian tradition. 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 until the end of time. 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. It was introduced among the Westerns from the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. There is no reliable authority for the Acts and martyrdom of this saint.”
The name is probably Latinized into a common cognomen of the Cassia gens, from the Greek lónchē (λόγχη), the word used for the spear mentioned in John19:34. It first appears lettered on an illumination of the Crucifixion beside the figure of the soldier holding a spear, written, perhaps contemporaneously, in horizontal Greek letters, LOGINOS (ΛΟΓΙΝΟϹ), in the Syriac gospel manuscript illuminated by a certain Rabulas in the year 586, in the Laurentian Library, Florence. The spear used is known as the Holy Lance, and more recently, especially in occult circles, as the “Spear of Destiny”, which was revered at Jerusalem by the sixth century, although neither the centurion nor the name “Longinus” were invoked in any surviving report. As the “Lance of Longinus”, the spear figures in the legends of the Holy Grail.
Blindness or other eye problems are not mentioned until after the tenth century. Petrus Comestor was one of the first to add an eyesight problem to the legend and his text can be translated as “blind”, “dim-sighted” or “weak-sighted”. The Golden Legend says that he saw celestial signs before conversion and that his eye problems might have been caused by illness or age. The touch of Jesus’s blood cures his eye problem:
Christian legend has it that Longinus was a blind Roman centurion who thrust the spear into Christ’s side at the crucifixion. Some of Jesus’s blood fell upon his eyes and he was healed. Upon this miracle Longinus believed in Jesus.
The body of Longinus is said to have been lost twice, but discovered at Mantua, together with the Holy Sponge stained with Christ’s blood, wherewith it was told—extending Longinus’s role—that Longinus had assisted in cleansing Christ’s body when it was taken down from the cross. The relic enjoyed a revived cult in the late 13th century under the patronage of the Bonacolsi.
The relics are said to have been divided and then distributed to Prague (St. Peter and Paul Basilica, Vyšehrad) and elsewhere. Greek sources assert that he suffered martyrdom in Cappadocia. The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Washington, DC, purports to have a holy relic, a fragment of bone, of Saint Longinus.
Longinus is venerated, generally as a martyr, in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Apostolic Church. His feast day is kept on 16 October in the Roman Martyrology, which mentions him, without any indication of martyrdom, in the following terms: “At Jerusalem, commemoration of Saint Longinus, who is venerated as the soldier opening the side of the crucified Lord with a lance”. The pre-1969 feast day in the Roman Rite is 15 March. The Eastern Orthodox Church commemorates him on 16 October. In the Armenian Apostolic Church, his feast is commemorated on 22 October.
The statue of Saint Longinus, sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is one of four in the niches beneath the dome of Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. A spearpoint fragment said to be from the Holy Lance is also conserved in the Basilica.
Hagiographical fragments on St. Longinus from 11th–13th century found in Dubrovnik indicate his veneration in this area in Middle Ages. There is altarpieceSt. Longinus and St. Gaudentius by an anonymous author from 17th century in St. Anthony the Great Catholic parish church in Veli Lošinj.
The Longinus cross (German: Longinuskreuz) is a special form of the Arma Christi cross, which occurs mainly in the Black Forest, but also occasionally in other regions of South Germany.
Brazil
Folkloric role
In Brazil, Saint Longinus – in Portuguese, São Longuinho – is attributed the power of finding missing objects. The saint’s aid is summoned by the chant:
São Longuinho, São Longuinho, se eu achar [missing object], dou três pulinhos! (O Saint Longinus, Saint Longinus, if I find [missing object], I’ll hop three times!)
Folk tradition explains the association with missing objects with a tale from the saint’s days in Rome. It is said he was of short stature and, as such, had unimpeded view of the underside of tables in crowded parties. Due to this, he would find and return objects dropped on the ground by the other attendants.
Accounts vary regarding the promised offering of three hops, citing either deference to an alleged limping of the saint or a plea to the Holy Trinity.
Brazilian spiritism
Brazilian mediumChico Xavier wrote Brasil, Coração do Mundo, Pátria do Evangelho, a psychographic book of authorship attributed to the spirit of Humberto de Campos. In the book, Saint Longinus is claimed to have been reincarnated as Pedro II, the last Brazilian emperor.
What do you eat to celebrate the Feast Day of St. Longinus?
While I was unable to find any specific wide-ranging culinary tradition, associated with this feast day, I did come across a recipe that I’ll share below that should both be tasty, and serve as an opportunity to discuss the events for which Longinus is most well-remembered.
Wash and trim one bunch of asparagus spears. Cut some carrot sticks to about the same size and combine in a bowl. Add 2 Tbsp. olive oil, about 2-3 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional) or 2-3 Tbsp chopped dill ( also optional), the juice and zest of one lemon ( once when I was out of lemons, I used a tangerine…yum!). and salt and pepper to taste. Toss this well and place mixture onto a cookie sheet and roast at 350 for about 20 minutes till the vegetables look well roasted, but not too brown.
What is a prayer to say on the Feast Day of St. Longinus?
O most glorious Saint Longinus, patron of those near-blind and far-sighted alike, I humbly turn to you in this time of distress. I have lost an item that is dear to me, and I seek your divine guidance so I may find it again. Through the unparalleled power of faith, let me not look for but come upon the item – found suddenly by your wise hand alone. Bless me with a clearer sight, so this lost thing may gracefully return to me through the almighty touch of thy presence despite my ordinary vision. Amen.
When is the Feast Day of St. Longinus celebrated?
This feast day is celebrated annually on 16 October in most traditions (though Catholics only somewhat recently adopted this date. Prior to 1969, Catholics celebrated on 15 March and it was a prominent part of Catholic Lent.)
The Armenian Apostolic Church observes this feast day on 22 October. The Coptic Orthodox Church observes it on 14 November.
I hope everyone who celebrates has a wonderful day!
