By Christina Gray
The seven new saints canonized by Pope Leo XIV on Oct. 19 include St. Bartolo Longo, a satanic priest who disavowed the devil and returned to his Catholic faith after praying the rosary. He became a beloved proponent of the rosary, eventually building the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.
“He lived a very checkered life,” said Father Joseph-Anthony Kress, a Dominican friar of the Province of St. Joseph in a July 21 episode of “Ascension Presents,” a Catholic television program.
Father Kress and Father Mark-Mary Ames, a Franciscan Friar of the Renewal, discussed in a short clip what they called the “wild story” of St. Bartolo Longo. The clip was produced not long after the Vatican announced in June Pope Leo’s decision to elevate nine Blesseds to sainthood this year, including Longo.
The other new saints canonized with him include a martyred Armenian Catholic bishop; three Catholic sisters who served the poor and uneducated in Ecuador, Italy and Venezuela; a martyred lay catechist from Papua New Guinea and a Venezuelan medical doctor.
Father Ames and Father Kress described St. Bartolo Longo’s metamorphosis from devotion to the devil to devotion to Mary as “a dramatic testimony to the power of the rosary.”
‘Apostle of the rosary’
Bartolo Longo was born into a wealthy Catholic family in 1841. He went to the University of Naples to study law at a time of anti-papal sentiment in Europe and the rise of spiritualism and the occult. He followed the zeitgeist, visiting local mediums that drew him into the occult. His thirst for the supernatural led him into outright satanism, according to a biography at dominicanfriars.org. He was even consecrated a satanic priest and, for a time, presided over satanic services and preached boldly against God and the Church as the real evils.
Longo reportedly began suffering from dramatic physical and personality changes that one of his professors took notice of. Eventually even Longo himself could not deny his deterioration.
“His professor suggested he speak with one of his friends, who just happened to be a Dominican friar,” Father Kress said. After three weeks of meeting with the friar, Longo rejected satanic and occult practices. He went to confession, received absolution and feverishly prayed the rosary.
“It was a very radical conversion and a very gripping one,” said Father Kress. “In praying the rosary, Longo became very devoted to Our Lady and recognized that his redemption and path to salvation was through promoting the rosary.”
A lawyer by profession, Longo also became a third-order (lay) Dominican. He sought reparation for his scandalous past by holding up the rosary in his former satanist hangouts and publicly renouncing his former ways. Still, he despaired of salvation. He couldn’t forgive himself or see how God could ever forgive him for his past. He considered suicide.
One of Italy’s largest Marian shrines
One day while Longo was on legal business in Pompeii, God helped him to see both how he could be saved and how he could spend his life saving others.
“I heard an echo in my ear of the voice of Friar Alberto (St. Albert the Great, a Dominican) repeating the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary: ‘One who propagates my rosary shall be saved.’”
Bartolo Longo spent the rest of his life propagating the rosary and imitating the mysteries it contained. Some called him the “apostle of the rosary.” He and his wife built the Pontifical Shrine of the Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, today one of Italy’s most popular Marian shrines with 2 million visitors a year. Together, they built elementary schools and orphanages and started a print shop and technical school to give the children of convicted criminals the chance for a better life.
“For Blessed Bartolo, it wasn’t just an act of charity,” said Father Ames. “It came so naturally because of how deeply his life was changed by our Lord, by our Lady and by the rosary.”
Here are the seven saints canonized by Pope Leo XIV on Oct. 19:
St. Luigia Poloni (1802–1855)
The co-founder of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona dedicated her life to caring for the sick, poor and marginalized.
St. Bartolo Longo (1841–1926)
St. José Gregorio Hernández (1864–1919)
A Venezuelan physician revered in Latin America as the “doctor of the poor,” he combined science and faith in treating the sick.
St. Ignatius Maloyan (1869–1915)
An Armenian Catholic archbishop martyred during the Armenian genocide for refusing to renounce his Christian faith.
St. Maria Troncatti (1883–1969)
The Salesian sister served as a nurse, missionary and educator in the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador.
St. Carmen Elena Rendiles Martínez (1903–1977)
Despite being born without a left arm, she founded the Servants of Jesus of Venezuela.
St. Peter To Rot (1912–1945)
The lay catechist from Papua New Guinea resisted the Japanese occupation’s ban on Christian worship during World War II.
Christina Gray is the lead writer for Catholic San Francisco.
