The legend
Later tradition identifies him with the unnamed centurion in the Gospels who, at the Crucifixion, declares Christ "the son of God," and with the soldier described in John's Gospel as piercing Jesus' side. Accounts hold that water from the wound splashed into the soldier's eyes and cured a chronic ailment there, and that this healing led to his conversion; he is said to have left the army, become a monk, and traveled through what is now Turkey.
Tradition also credits him with destroying idols and casting out the spirits that had possessed a man who had been pursuing him, and says he was later imprisoned, tortured, and eventually martyred for his Christian faith.
Veneration
Longinus is traditionally invoked for finding lost objects. His feast is kept on different dates in different regions — October 16 in parts of Eastern Europe, March 15 in Brazil and Spain — and he is usually depicted in art as a soldier holding a spear. A spear associated with his story is preserved in Vienna and venerated there as a relic.