Bl. Bartolo Longo

Bartolo was born to a wealthy family in Latiano, near southern Italy on February 10th, 1841. He was raised by Roman Catholic parents, though unfortunately his father died ten years after his birth and his mother remarried a lawyer. Unlike his father who wanted him to become a teacher, Longo desired to become a lawyer, and his stepfather helped him follow his dreams in 1861 when he convinced him to send him to the University of Naples to study law.

During the 1860s the Church was debating the topic of a strong nationalistic movement. General Giuseppe Garibaldi played a large role in Italian unification saw the Pope as an antagonist and actively campaigned for the elimination of the papal position altogether. The church in Europe was also combatting the growing support of spiritualism and occultism. Many students at the University of Naples supported these and Bartolo found himself rallying with his fellow students against the church. He participated in demonstrations against the pope, discovered witchcraft, and met with Neapolitan mediums. He later became involved with a movement he claimed had led him to a satanist cult. After study and spiritual experiences, Longo was ordained as a satanic priest.

Bartolo's life later became rampant with confusion, nervousness, depression, paranoia, and anxiety. His hometown friend, Vincenzo Pepe convinced him to abandon satanism and brought him to Dominican Father Alberto Radente, who guided Longo to a devotion to the rosary. On October 7th, 1871, Longo became a Dominican tertiary and took the name "Rosario". It is reported that sometime near this event, Bartolo went to a seance, held up a rosary, and said, "I renounce spiritualism because it is nothing but a maze of error and falsehood. For two years, he got to know and assist the Franciscans with the incurable and the poor. Longo's upkeep of his law studies brought him to the village of Pompei where he took care of the legal matters of Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco.

In Pompei, Longo later described that he was surprised at the dissolution of the people's faith. He transcribed, "Their religion was a mixture of superstition and popular tradition. ... For their every need, ... they would go to a witch, a sorceress, in order to obtain charms and witchcraft." Bartolo soon acknowledged their severe lack of religious study after conversing with the citizens. He once asked one man if there was only one God, the man answered, "When I was a child, I remember people telling me there were three. Now, after so many years, I don't know if one of them is dead or one has married."

Longo wrote of his aforementioned afflictions as well as struggling with suicidal thoughts, but combatted them by remembering the promise of St. Dominic, "He who propagates my Rosary will be saved." Longo recounted that St. Dominic's promise is what convinced him to encourage the public to devote themselves to the rosary.

Countess Mariana di Fusco helped Longo inaugurate a confraternity of the Rosary and in October of 1873, he began restoring a run-down church. He later hosted a festival in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary.

In 1875, Longo was given a gift, a painting of Our Lady of the Rosary, with Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena. Sister M. Concetta de Litala of the Monastery of the Rosary at Porta Medina had been keeping it for Dominican Father Alberto Radente who had gotten it from a junk-shop dealer in Naples for a very low cost. The painting was in poor condition and Longo recorded his immediate distaste of the shoddy artistic quality when he first saw it. Nevertheless, he accepted the gift to save funds and to not hurt Sister Concetta. Longo raised funds to repair the painting and he located it in the church in an effort to encourage more pilgrimages.

Miracles began to be reported and people began pouring to the church. Longo was encouraged by the Bishop of Nola to construct a larger church. The cornerstone was laid on May 8th, 1876. It was consecrated in May of 1891 by Cardinal La Valletta who was there representing Pope Leo XIII. In 1939, the church was transformed into a basilica, known in the present day as the Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Pompei.

At the suggestion of Pope Leo XIII, Bartolo Longo and the Countess Mariana di Fusco were married on April 7th, 1885. The couple remained continent and continued their charitable works and provided food and such for orphaned children and the children of prisoners of families of revolutionaries. Later, in 1906, they gave the entirety of the Pompei shrine to the Holy See. Longo continued to promote the rosary until his death on October 5th, 1926, at the age of 85. The piazza where his basilica stands has been named in memory of Longo. His body is now in a glass tomb. He was buried wearing the mantle of a Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, a papal order of knighthood.

On October 26th, 1980, Bartolo was beatified by Pope John Paul II who also called him the "Apostle of the Rosary" and went out of his way to mention Longo in his apostolic letter "Rosarium Virginis Mariae".

His attributes are a knight habit and a rosary, and his patronage is over those who suffer from depression and anxiety.