Holy Lance
The name of the soldier who pierced Christ's side with a "lonchē" is not given in the Gospel of John, but in the oldest known references to the legend, the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus appended to late manuscripts of the 4th century "Acts of Pilate", the soldier is identified as a centurion and called Longinus (making the spear's Latin name "Lancea Longini").
Longinus
Longinus is the name given in Christian mythology to the unnamed Roman soldier who pierced Jesus in his side with a lance and who in medieval and some modern Christian traditions is described as a convert to Christianity. The lance is called in Christianity the "Holy Lance" ("lancea") and his story is related in the Latin Vulgate Bible during the Crucifixion. This act is said to have created the last of the Five Holy Wounds of Christ.