medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Thanks- that's two good leads before the day is out (at least on my side of
the Atlantic). What a wonderful thing this list is.
Laura
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Bugslag" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 17 November 2005 18:25
Subject: Re: Longinus and an unknown soldier
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>> Does anyone know of a Roman soldier or centurion who was around at the
>> time of the
>> Crucifixion and later became a Christian, and who *wasn't* Longinus? I'm
>> trying to explain the
>> presence of such a character in an image of the Road to Calvary. He has
>> no halo, so may never
>> have become a saint. It seems to me that the gospels allow for the
>> possibility of two good
>> soldiers at the Crucifixion- one who recognised Christ as the Son of God,
>> the other (in Luke)who
>> bore witness at the piercing of Christ's side. The Golden Legend seems to
>> collapse them both in
>> to St. Longinus, but I'd like to know if there was any medieval tradtion
>> of a good 'unknown
>> soldier'.
>
> Laura,
> The centurion who, according to Matthew 27:54, recognized Christ as the
> Son of
> God when an earthquake marked his death on the Cross was, I believed,
> unnamed.
> Gertrud Schiller, vol. 2, p. 13, is not as informative as usual on this,
> but seems to
> indicate that there could have been some conflation with Longinus, as in
> the Golden
> Legend, as early as the Acta Pilati of the 5th or 6th centuries. This
> figure began to
> appear in Crucifixion scenes, usually pointing up at Christ to indicate
> his
> recognition, in Carolingian Crucifixion scenes and became very common in
> the later
> Middle Ages. His separate identity from Longinus in these scenes
> certainly
> suggests that his identity was considered separately, but I don't know
> about textual
> sources for this.
> Cheers,
> Jim Bugslag
>
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