Detached Account of Longinus
from The Sorrowful Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ
by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824)
Mystic, Stigmatist, Visionary, and Prophet
NIHIL OBSTAT: GEORGIVS D. SMITH. D.D.
CENSOR DEPVTATVS
IMPRIMATUR: EDM. CAN. SVRMONT
VICARIVS GENERALIS
WESTMONASTERII, DIE XXI MAII MCMXXVIII
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"Nihil obstat" (Latin for "no problem".)
"Imprimatur" (Latin for "let it be printed"). |
On the 15th of March 1821, Sister Emmerich gave the following detached account
of parts of a vision which she had had the previous night concerning St Longinus, whose festival happened to fall upon that very day,
although she did not know it.
‘Longinus, who had, I think, another name, held an office, partly civil and partly military, in
the household of Pilate, who entrusted him with the duty of superintending all that passed, and making a report of it to him. He was
trustworthy and ready to do a service, but previous to his conversion was greatly wanting in firmness and
strength of character. He was excessively impetuous in all that he did, and anxious to be thought a person of great importance, and as he
squinted and had weak eyes, he was often jeered at and made the laughing-stock of his companions. I have seen him frequently during the
course of this night, and in connection with him I have at the same time seen all the Passion, I do not know
in what manner; I only remember that it was in connection with him.
‘Longinus was only in a subordinate position, and had to give an account to Pilate of all that he saw. On
the night that Jesus was led before the tribunal of Caiaphas he was in the outer court among the soldiers, and
unceasingly going backwards and forwards. When Peter was alarmed at the words of the maid-servant standing near the fire, it was he who said
once: "Art thou not also one of this Man’s disciples?"
‘When Jesus was being led to Calvary, Longinus,
by Pilate’s orders, followed him closely, and our Divine Lord gave him a look which touched his
heart. Afterwards I saw him on Golgotha with the soldiers. He was on horseback, and
carried a lance; I saw him at Pilate’s house, after the death of Our Lord,
saying that the legs of Jesus ought not to be broken. He returned at once to
Calvary. His lance was made of several pieces which fitted one into the other, so that by drawing them out, the lance could be
made three times its original length. He had just done this when he came to the sudden determination of piercing the side of
Our Savior. He was converted upon Mount Calvary,
and a short time afterwards expressed to Pilate his conviction that Jesus was the Son
of God. Nicodemus prevailed upon Pilate to let him have Longinus’s lance, and I have seen many things concerning the
subsequent history of this lance. Longinus, after his conversion, left the army, and joined the disciples.
He and two other soldiers, who were converted at the foot of the Cross,
were among the first baptized after Pentecost.
‘I saw Longinus and these two men, clothed in long white garments, return to their native land. They lived
there in the country, in a barren and marshy locality. Here it was that the forty martyrs
died. Longinus was not a priest, but a deacon, and travelled here and there in that capacity, preaching the name of
Christ, and giving, as an eye-witness, a history of His
Passion and Resurrection. He converted a large number of persons, and
cured many of the sick, by allowing them to touch
a piece of the sacred lance which he carried with him. The Jews were much enraged at him and his two
companions because they made known in all parts the truth of the Resurrection
of Jesus, and the cruelty and deceits of
His enemies. At their instigation, some Roman soldiers were dispatched to
Longinus’s country to take and judge him on the plea of his having left the army without leave, and being a disturber of public
peace. He was engaged in cultivating his field when they arrived, and he took them to his house, and offered them hospitality. They did
not know him, and when they had acquainted him with the object of their journey, he quietly called his two companions who were living in
a sort of hermitage at no great distance off, and told the soldiers that they and himself were the men for whom they were seeking. The
same thing happened to the holy gardener, Phocas. The soldiers were really distressed, for they had conceived a great friendship for him.
I saw him led with his two companions to a small neighbouring town, where they were questioned. They were not put in prison, but permitted
to go whither they pleased, as prisoners on their word, and only made to wear a distinctive mark on the shoulder. Later, they were all
three beheaded on a hill, situated between the little town and Longinus’s
house, and there buried. The soldiers put the head of Longinus at the end of a spear, and carried it to Jerusalem, as a proof that they
had fulfilled their commission. I think I remember that this took place a very few years after the death of
Our Lord.
‘Afterwards I had a vision of things happening at a later period. A blind countrywoman of St Longinus
went with her son on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in hopes of recovering her sight in the holy city where the eyes of Longinus had been
cured. She was guided by her child, but he died, and she was left alone and
disconsolate. Then St Longinus appeared to her, and told her that she would recover her sight when she had
drawn his head out of a sink into which the Jews had thrown it. This
sink was a deep well, with the sides bricked, and all the filth and refuse of the town flowed into it through several drains.
I saw some persons lead the poor woman to the spot; she descended into the well up to her neck, and drew out the
sacred head, whereupon she recovered her sight. She returned to her native land, and her companions preserved the head. I remember
no more upon this subject,’
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