E06103: The Encomium on *Longinos (centurion at the Crucifixion, S00926), misattributed to Hesychius of Jerusalem, recounts the legend of the centurion who attended the crucifixion of Christ. Initially tortured under king Herod of Judaea for confessing the newly-born Christ as God, he lived till Christ’s crucifixion, and attended it. He was martyred at the village of Andralis near Tyana in Cappadocia (central Asia Minor), where his shrine was founded after the recovery of his head from Jerusalem by a widow. Written in Greek, probably in Cappadocia, or perhaps in Palestine, possibly in the 6th century or later.

Encomium on Longinos (= ps-Hesychius of Jerusalem, Homily 20; CPG 6590 = BHG 990)

Summary:

1. Praise for the three First Martyrs, John the Baptist, Stephen, and Longinos the centurion.

2-12. Longinos is a centurion under king Herod. He is sent to Bethlehem after the departure of the Magi, and returns to Herod, confessing the divinity of Christ. He is arrested, imprisoned, and tortured, but remains miraculously radiant and beautiful. He is liberated by an angel and lives invisibly in the city. Herod dies.

13. The succession of kings of Judea after Herod till the crucifixion of Christ.

14-16. Longinos, who has joined the army again under the name Primianos, attends Christ’s crucifixion. Christ blesses him from the cross and allows him to leave Jerusalem, promising to make him a martyr.

17-22. Longinos returns to his native village, Andrales of Gabrales, near Tyana in Cappadocia, where he lives as a shepherd. Informed by the governor Loukios, King Herod starts a persecution of the Christians and seeks out Longinos. He sends three officers and soldiers to decapitate him, who meet him near Tyana. Longinos offers them hospitality and reveals himself to them. They behead him, bury his body at the village, and take his head to the governor Loukios in Jerusalem.

23. A noble widow called Chreste (‘kind’) suffered from a demon and decided to go to Jerusalem seeking a cure. Longinos appears to her and instructs her to go the governor Loukios and ask for his head which she should unite with this body.

24. She prays at Longinos’ tomb, and hears a voice encouraging her. She goes to Jerusalem and acquires the head, after paying 200 dinars to the governor Loukios.

25. Accompanied by her son, Chrestion, the widow returns to Longinos’ village. The door of the martyr’s shrine opens miraculously, and her son enters the tomb where the head is miraculously united with the body.

26-29. Two days later, Longinos appears to Chreste and promises to recruit her son to the heavenly army. While working with his vines, Chrestion dies. When his mother finds him, she is distressed, but an angel reveals to her that he was taken by Christ and will be buried in the same tomb as Longinos. She reports the events to the villagers, and they inform the bishop of Tyana, Paphnoutios, who arrives and consoles Chreste. Paphnoutios buries her son with Longinos, and Chreste becomes a deaconess at the shrine. Longinos appears to her at night and shows her her son, now a soldier in heaven. Chreste spends the rest of her life serving at the shrine where she is also buried, during the episcopate of Paphnoutios.

Text: Aubineau 1980.
Summary: E. Rizos.