Earlier this year on February 25, Pope Francis signed a decree authorizing the canonization of Bartolo Longo. It was signed during the Pope's stay in Gemelli Hospital that would end in his death a few months later.
As a result, Pope Leo XIV had to affirm the canonization and schedule the day when Longo would be canonized.
It was decided that Bartolo Longo would be canonized on Sunday, October 19, World Mission Sunday. He will be canonized along with six other men and women from five countries. They include martyrs, founders of religious congregations, and lay people.
October is also a fitting month for Longo's canonization, as he was deeply devoted to the Rosary during his life.
Who was Bartolo Longo?
Blessed Bartolo Long was "ordained" a Satanic priest, which involved leading séances, experimenting with drugs, and even getting involved in orgies.
Then one night he heard the voice of his dead father crying out to him, “Return to God!”
This lead him on a journey back to the Catholic Church, holding fast to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Meg Hunter-Kilmer explains in an article for Aleteia how, "cleansed and consecrated, Bartolo visited one last séance. He walked in, held up a rosary and called out, 'I renounce spiritualism because it is nothing but a maze of error and falsehood.'"
Longo joined the Dominicans and took as his name Brother Rosario (Brother Rosary.)
Pope Benedict XVI praised Longo for his devotion to the Rosary in a visit to Pompeii in 2008:
Before entering the Shrine to recite the Holy Rosary with you, I paused briefly before the tomb of Bl. Bartolo Longo and, praying, I asked myself: "Where did this great apostle of Mary find the energy and perseverance he needed to bring such an impressive work, now known across the world, to completion? Was it not in the Rosary, which he accepted as a true gift from Our Lady's Heart?" Yes, that truly was how it happened!
Longo loved the Rosary, but he saw it as more of a conversation with Mary than a long list of prayers. He would promote the Rosary for the rest of his life.
He died on October 5, 1926, and was beatified by St. John Paul II on October 26, 1980.
