Homilia i in sanctum Longinum centurionem

Martyrdom of the holy Longinus the centurion, who was at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the two soldiers with him, composed by Hesychius, presbyter of Jerusalem. Many are the writings of the martyrs; for just as the images of painters, imitating certain views of cities, and the heights of towers, and the forms of men and women—sometimes young, sometimes elderly, sometimes royal, sometimes bridal, sometimes gloomy, sometimes joyful—are displayed, so also those who have recorded the accounts of the martyrdom contests reveal to the ears the steadfastness of soul, the manliness of character, the fearless, bold, and undaunted presence in the face of terrors, and the alliance from God descending to them, confessed sometimes by the multitude of signs, sometimes by the wealth of words of grace. But how might I worthily record a writing of Longinus, wise and brave, especially concerning his martyrdom for Christ, which he began by confessing him?

When, shaken by fear, the whole chorus of the apostles denied him, and the lame whom he had raised, the blind whom he had enlightened, the lepers among them whom he had freed from their spotted skin and the blemishes of their flesh, and others whose calamities he had ended, whose diseases he had dissolved, and whose nature he had transformed for the better—all these, struck with awe at the drama of the cross, endured a shipwreck full of storm, the confession of the pious centurion Longinus was present in the ears of the wolf-minded synagogue of the Jews, when he said: "Truly this was the son of God." For he was not ashamed of Pilate, who was hired against Christ, nor did he fear or shrink from the multitude of those countless myriads. Therefore let his most beautiful contest be spoken and written, which the eyewitnesses from the beginning narrated and handed down to the following generation; and from that generation to the next, and so down to us, the accounts of Longinus's martyrdom, like spotless pearls adorning the sacred bridal chamber of Christ, have been preserved.

When, then, Pilate, having been asked for a guard for the tomb of the only-begotten son of God, gave one, Longinus was the commander of them; for he himself had also guarded the cross of Christ together with the soldiers under him. But when the resurrection of Christ had taken place, as the writings of the divine Gospels have handed down to us, and the soldiers had reported to the high priests and elders of the Jewish faction the miracles that had occurred, those men, being ashamed before the people and wishing to extinguish the miracle, gave the soldiers a considerable sum of silver so that they might slander the resurrection of Christ; and they also persuaded Pilate to accept the slander with much money. But Longinus did not prefer deceit to truth, nor did he take gold against Christ, nor did he endure preferring mammon to God, nor, enslaved by greed, did he slip into its death-filled abyss, nor did he tolerate slanders of falsehood against Christ, who raised Adam, slew death, and gave life to mortals. At this, Pilate and the rulers of the Jews, being stung, sought a plot against the blessed Longinus and had no opportunity; for Longinus was the most distinguished of the entire military phalanx. But when Christ

he removes the belt of Caesar; and thereafter he sits at home with the two soldiers, who together with him became co-heirs of the blessed contest, becoming heralds of what they saw and heard. And having left Jerusalem, he returned with them and became a herald in the land of the Cappadocians, just as Thomas to the Indians, Peter to the Romans, John to the Asians, Paul "from Jerusalem and as far as Illyricum," and another to others, proclaiming Christ and the mysteries performed by him and concerning him. But the Jews, burning with zeal and goaded by rage, could not endure the testimony of Longinus, which had already run through many parts of the earth. Then they persuade Pilate to write false charges against the blessed Longinus to Caesar, that he holds opinions alien to the Roman empire and, neglecting his weapons, proclaims Christ as king to the nations; and that he has already filled his own fatherland and country with words about this. Along with these letters they send money and purchase the death of Longinus, having stolen the ears of Caesar. Imperial letters are brought to Pilate in Judea against Longinus and those with him; they are ordered to lay down their heads by the sword, as those who have neglected their weapons. And with great haste, Pilate entrusts the letters of Caesar to the servants of murder.

They quickly crossed the land of the Cappadocians and arrived, and having learned that Longinus was philosophizing on his ancestral farm and practicing quietude, having freed himself from all civic affairs, they immediately occupied the farm in silence, wishing to carry out the command of Pilate and Caesar, so that Longinus might not take flight. Hence they suddenly confronted the man, as if they had crossed over for some other purpose, and they did not dare to reveal anything of what they were carrying in their hands. Then, entering and encountering Longinus, not knowing that he was the one sought by them and by Pilate, they began to ask where Longinus was. He, the divine Spirit having revealed the drama to him beforehand, says: "Follow me, and I will point him out to you." Then the blessed one, rejoicing within himself, as is fitting, and hastening the sacrifice of martyrdom, said: "How beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim peace, who proclaim good tidings. Now I shall see the heavens opened, now I shall behold the glory of the Father, now I shall contemplate the ineffable lightning of the Spirit. Now I shall say, 'Lord, Jesus Christ, receive my spirit,' just as Stephen, the first of the martyrs, whose most radiant cry I heard when he uttered it. Now I shall enter Jerusalem, the highest golden-towered city, the same homeland of the angels and the metropolis of the entire chorus of saints, with acclamations, victory songs, and royal trophies. Now I strip off the clay tunic and lay aside the much-lamented bonds of the flesh, and I am freed from corruption.

I am drawn toward incorruption, having a life outside of winter, departing from the temporary life, where there are many waves and grievous shipwrecks. The only immortal harbor is that life where the saints dwell. Rejoice, my soul, as you go to your maker, show a cheerful face at the season that calls, and let us hospitably entertain, rejoicing, those who have procured for you so many goods, and let us set forth a costly table for those who invite us to the royal banquet. 7 Having said these things to himself, Longinus received those who had come to him into his own house, and having entertained them splendidly with a cheerful and very joyful countenance, and having eaten with them at the table he set before them, after the dinner he begins to ask Longinus what they want. But they, having demanded oaths from him that he would not make public their speech nor expose the mystery entrusted to them, then tell him the things written from Caesar to Pilate, and that they had come to cut off the head of Longinus along with two others. And he, having inquired who these were who were with Longinus, learned that they were those who had preferred Christ to Jewish hire, and with great haste he writes to them to come to him quickly, to share great goods with him. And having entertained them for one day and a second in this way, on the third day, taking them to a field, he waited there for those summoned by him. And having learned that they were near, he announces to them that he himself was Longinus, the one sought by them.

Those who previously disbelieved, but after this were persuaded, wept, tearing out their own hair and uttering pitiful cries to Longinus: "What is this undertaking that seemed good to you, O friend? Why did you receive into your house those who came for your murder? For what reason did you prepare a dinner and set a table for those who came to slaughter you, not for one day only, but for a second and a third? Did you not see your wine mixed with your blood, which we sought? Now what is there to say? What are we able to do or plan concerning you? Go, taking as a reward for your hospitality the remission of the death you owe to us; for we do not dare to lay the sword upon you; our limbs are numb, we blush before the table, we fear God, the overseer of hospitality. It is better for us to risk, before Pilate, maneuvering for the head of Longinus, than for our whole life to be consumed by conscience and to see the so-called bloodthirsty demons dining with us. For how will our dinner be good if we lay hands upon you? For not only our hands are numb, but also our feet and our whole body, if we do this, if we become murderers of our benefactor and host." 9 So they spoke to Longinus. But they did not persuade the eager and courageous athlete to abandon the contest for the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but he answers them boldly: "Do not," he says, "wish me to appear a traitor to life, nor to be shown a tempter of grace.

Let me not become a wolf that has cast off the choice of the sheep. Let me by no means deny the one I once confessed. Let me not be deprived of that glory which I saw shaking the elements. Let not the populace of creation become my accuser, because I transgressed against him for whom the heaven covered its own eyes and the sun sank the chariots of its rays, the days of light renounced the stadium, the night was forcibly drawn forth; for the weight of the cross could not be borne, and the accusation of Jewish rebellion against God was set aside. These things I have witnessed with my own eyes and my own sight. How then shall I scatter the wealth of so many good things for me? For I will not even endure the reproaches of angels. While Longinus was still speaking these things, the pair of soldiers with him, who had received the death sentence from Caesar, arrived. Longinus met them with a bright and very joyful face, and kissing both their eyes and their necks, he said to them: "Rejoice, fellow soldiers of Christ and victors of the divine contests and heirs of the kingdom of the heavens; rejoice that the gate to heaven has opened for us, that angels are about to receive our souls and offer them to the only-begotten Son of God. Behold, I see the torches and I perceive the crowns and I discern the prizes with which we will stand before the tribunal of the bridegroom." And having said these things, he said to the executioners: "If you have been ordered to do anything, make haste." And he said to the steward of his house to bring him a clean garment, as to one called to a wedding and a bridal chamber.

Having put it on and pointed with his hand to the hill where he had ordered his blessed body to be laid, he then bent his knee with great joy, and having arranged himself together with his companions who had completed the victorious contest, he is beheaded, and they are enrolled in the choirs of apostles and martyrs; for they displayed the courage of the former and the noble zeal of the latter. The executioners, taking the head of Saint Longinus, bring it to Pilate; for he had done this to gratify the Jews and for the money he had received. When the executioners brought the head of the saint to Jerusalem, Pilate ordered it to be shown to the Jews, who thirsted for Longinus’s death, and having sold the spectacle for much gold to those accustomed to purchasing the blood of the righteous with money. Then Pilate ordered the precious head of Saint Longinus—dreadful to demons, beloved by angels, and marveled at by the elements—to be cast out before the gate of the city. So it lay before the gate like an inviolable treasure; and although there was a great deal of dung there, the priceless pearl of Christ was preserved unharmed, and the dung was for a time his tomb, or rather his ark, as the benevolent God exercised forbearance in this as well for the sake of economy.

A certain widow, a woman from the same land of the Cappadocians, mother of an only child, having lost the eyes of her body, conquered the affliction by faith, and with her only child she arrived in Jerusalem, expecting here to recover her eyes through the veneration of the holy places. So, as she was being led by the hand by her own child, she gathered the dust of the earth and intended to plaster it over her own eyes, perhaps expecting to find in it the salve of light for regaining sight, but suddenly a sickness came upon her only son and snatched him from his mother's hands; then a double darkness of the eyes came upon her, and she was extinguished by the most bitter affliction of the calamity. And crying out piteous cries to God, she said: "How long, Lord, will you forget me utterly? and so on. Am I not the only one," she says, "who is sinful, that I am punished so bitterly? Am I worse than the prostitute whom you received when she brought you myrrh? But you have deprived me of the light and taken my only child; and there is no hope of salvation for me from anywhere.

While she was in great distress and inconsolable grief, the blessed Longinus appeared to her in sleep and related everything about himself: "I am," he said, "Longinus the centurion, who confessed at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ that 'truly this was the son of God.' Hence I also reveal to you how Pilate, having made a false speech against me, incited Caesar and cut off my head, and brought it here and cast it outside the city; for the children of the Jews agreed to this for a purchase of money. And a great heap of dung has been piled upon it, so that this lot was reserved for you for healing; for as soon as you uncover it, you will recover your eyes; then I will also present your son to you with glory, who will console your grief." Encouraged by these words, the woman, at once strengthened as brave and faithful, hastened to the task, being led by the hand to the place where she learned dung had been heaped, guided by those who were themselves faithful. And when they arrived at the designated place, she began to dig with her own hands; and by the providence of God, having quickly found the head precious to God, she immediately beheld the rays of the sun. Embracing it and washing it with all haste and anointing it with precious ointments, she returned bearing the pearl to the place where she was lodging.

Again on the following night the blessed Longinus stood before her, having her son at his side, radiant and smiling and wearing a garment like a bridegroom, and says: "Behold the one you longed for, O woman. This is the one you thought had been snatched from your hands. But God freed him and enlisted him in the kingdom above. And now I have him with me; for I received him from the Savior, and he will never depart from my right side. Take then my head and the body of your child, entomb them in a single coffin, and weep no more for your only son; for great glory has been granted to him with me, and a sacred altar, and mystic sacrifices, and much-hymned dances, and public festivals, and many other things besides these which cannot be performed on earth, but in heaven 'which the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man,' which God, having shown his love for us in deed and word, has prepared for us." The mother of the young man received these words as commands of a holy prophet, and immediately rising, she hastened to her homeland. She took the most honored and sacred head, and restored it to her own homeland, and she laid her son beside the holy relic of Saint Longinus, radiantly and joyfully, just as Saint Longinus had commanded her, in a village called Sandralis—for Saint Longinus was from there—crying out to herself and proclaiming in her heart and with her tongue: "We know that for those who love God, everything cooperates for the good. I sought eyes of flesh, but together with them I also received those of the spirit.

I was grieved by the loss of a child, but behold, I have the heir standing before God with royal glory. I see the young man clad in purple, I behold the youth in great splendor. The child is star-faced and smiles at his mother, and shining beside Longinus like the morning star beside the sun’s ray, appearing often by night, often by day, and not only in dreams but also manifestly in the manner of martyrs. His lot is with the prophets, though he did not live the life of the prophets, and with Longinus he bears the cross, and he carries the venerable trophy of the kingdom of the heavens, and he proclaims among angels, and in the midst of the host of archangels he cries out as a disciple of Longinus all that the seraphim concede to Longinus to glorify and the cherubim do not oppose when he hymns, and he himself utters a sacred voice, a hymn-singing, trophy-bearing, mystical, triumphal voice: “Truly this one was the Son of God,” and is and will be; which he has from before the ages and will have for the ages. He himself ages the ages, but he himself remains unaged; for his kingdom is an eternal kingdom and his authority will not be destroyed for the age; to him be glory and power for the ages of ages. Amen.

I, Hesychius, presbyter of Jerusalem, after much research with great labor, was able to find the martyrdom of Saint Longinus the centurion, who at the cross of Christ said, “Truly this was the Son of God.” I found it in a small scroll in the library of the holy Anastasis, and I compiled his confession together with the encomium. Therefore, let those who fear the Lord be assured that this is truly Saint Longinus the centurion, who at the cross of Christ confessed him. By his intercession and supplication may we all be preserved, both those who read this and those who hear it, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom belong the glory, the power, and the kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.