Longinus is the traditional name given to the Roman centurion at the foot of the Cross who, seeing the earthquake and the events at Christ's death, said: 'Indeed this was the Son of God' (Mt 27:54). The same name is given by tradition to the soldier who pierced the side of Christ with a spear, from which flowed blood and water (Jn 19:34).
Whether one centurion or two figures (the New Testament gives no name to either), tradition combined them into a single martyr — Longinus, from the Greek longche, 'lance.' By a further tradition he was a man of failing sight whose eyes were healed by the blood from the Lord's side; he converted, returned to his native Cappadocia, preached the Gospel, and was martyred there.
The Holy Lance, the spear with which he pierced Christ's side, is venerated in fragments at St. Peter's (Rome), Vienna (the Imperial Treasury), Echmiadzin (Armenia), and elsewhere. Bernini's colossal statue of St. Longinus stands in the niche beneath the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.