Bartolo Longo, future saint of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii

A native of Puglia, Bartolo Longo was raised in a religious environment, but turned away from it violently when he moved to Naples to study law. A reader of Ernest Renan, he then adhered to the positivist movement, which forcefully rejected any supernatural reality. During this period, he frequented occult circles and even went so far as to officiate at satanic masses.

Deeply disturbed by these spiritualist practices and suffering from depression, Bartolo Longo was taken under the wing of a family friend who introduced him to a Dominican priest. He also met Caterina Volpicelli (canonized in 2009), a very pious Neapolitan aristocrat and fervent devotee of the Rosary, who began to pray for him with her relatives. This new circle of friends radically transformed Bartolo Longo, who converted.

Still tormented, the young man abandoned his professional ambitions, renounced marriage, and took a job on a farm in Pompeii managed by Countess Mariana Farnararo. He also joined the Dominican Third Order, taking the name Brother Rosario – “Brother Rosary.”

This choice was prophetic: During an excursion in the countryside of Pompeii, he heard a voice saying to him, “If you seek salvation, spread the Rosary. This is Mary's promise. Whoever spreads the Rosary is saved.”

After this founding episode, Bartolo Longo devoted himself entirely to spreading this devotion, first in the local community, then throughout Italy. He created a newspaper and a small shrine dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii.

There he displayed a painting of the Virgin Mary, which he had blessed by Leo XIII, who supported him. The success was such that in 1876 he began construction of a new shrine. Donations poured in and the church was inaugurated in 1887.

Bartolo Longo then committed himself to helping the poorest of the poor. He founded an orphanage, an order of women religious — the Dominican Sisters of the Rosary of Pompeii—and an institution for the children of prisoners.

On a spiritual level, in 1883 he launched the devotion of the “Supplication” to the Virgin Mary, a prayer he composed that became a worldwide success. It’s recited at midday every May 8 and every first Sunday in October throughout the world.

In 1885, Bartolo Longo married Countess Mariana Farnararo, his long-time host, at the request of Leo XIII. However, the couple obtained a papal dispensation allowing them to live in chastity. 

Bartolo Longo later offered the property of the shrine to the pope, and it officially became “pontifical” in 1890. The layman then withdrew from all responsibility for the site to devote himself entirely to the poor and to prayer until his death in 1926, in the odor of sanctity.

His beatification process was opened in 1934. His heroic virtues were recognized in 1975 by Paul VI, who gave him the status of venerable. A first miracle attributed to his intercession in 1945 — the healing of an Italian mother — was quickly recognized, paving the way for his beatification by John Paul II in 1979.

The Polish pope visited the layman's tomb in the shrine in 1979 and 2003. In 2008, Benedict XVI presented the basilica with a golden rose, a high distinction given to a Marian shrine by the Catholic Church. In 2015, Francis also visited the shrine.

However, no second miracle attributed to his intercession had been recorded, thus closing the door to his canonization. Then in 2024, Pope Francis authorized the dicastery for the Causes of Saints to open an exceptional procedure for the canonization of Bartolo Longo without the need for a miracle to be recognized.

The dicastery recognized the exemplary nature of the blessed's life and the exceptional vigor of the devotion surrounding him and validated this new positio. The decision was approved on February 24, 2025, by Pope Francis, who was hospitalized at Gemelli Hospital at the time.

The death of the Argentine pontiff on April 21 delayed Bartolo Longo's canonization, but coincided with an event of great symbolic significance: Leo XIV, who chose his name in homage to Leo XIII — a great supporter of the saint of Pompeii — was elected on May 8, the feast day of the Supplication to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.

Aware of the date, the new pope emphasized it in his first speech. On October 6, he also celebrated the “Supplication” to the Madonna so dear to Bartolo Longo in a Roman chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.