Abba Longinus asked Abba Lucius three thoughts. First he said, “I want to live as a stranger.” Lucius replied, “If you cannot control your tongue wherever you are, merely changing places will not make you a stranger. Control your tongue here, and then you will be living as a stranger.” Longinus said, “I want to fast.” Lucius replied, “Even if you bend your neck like a collar and a ring, that will not be called an acceptable fast. Rather, control your evil thoughts.” Longinus said, “I want to flee from people.” Lucius replied, “First live rightly with people; then you will be able to live rightly alone.”
Abba Longinus said to his body, “Be ill, and even die. If you demand food outside the proper time, I will not even give you your daily food.”
A woman who had a disease of her breast called cancer heard of Abba Longinus and went looking for him. He lived at the ninth milestone from Alexandria. She found the elder collecting wood by the sea but did not recognize him. She asked, “Abba, where does Abba Longinus live, the servant of God?” He said, “Why are you looking for that impostor? Do not go to him. He is a deceiver. What is wrong with you?” She showed him the disease. He made the sign of the cross over the sore and sent her away, saying, “Go, and God will heal you. Longinus cannot help you at all.” She believed him and was healed at once. Later, when she described the elder to others, she learned that the man she had met was Abba Longinus himself.
Some people once brought a demon-possessed man to Abba Longinus. He said to them, “I cannot do anything for you; rather go to Abba Zeno.” Then Abba Zeno began pressing the demon to drive it out. The demon began to cry, “Now you think, Abba Zeno, that I am coming out because of you? Look, Abba Longinus is over there praying against me, and because I fear his prayers I am coming out; otherwise I would not have given you an answer.”
Abba Longinus said to Abba Acacius, “A woman knows that she has conceived when her flow of blood stops. So the soul knows that it has conceived the Holy Spirit when the passions flowing downward from it stop. As long as it is held by them, how can it boast vainly that it is passionless? Give blood, and receive Spirit.”