Blessed Bartolo Longo: The Ex-Satanist On the Path to Sainthood
Angelo Stagnaro visits the resting place of Blessed Bartolo Longo, the turbulent occultist who become a champion of the rosary
He consecrated the world, entrusting it to Mary's hands, offering the Blessed Virgin a golden rose. In his homily, Benedict XVI likened Bartolo Longo to St Paul of Tarsus, who also initially persecuted the Church, described Bartolo as being "militantly anticlerical and engaging in spiritualist and superstitious practices".
LONDON, England (UK Catholic Herald) - The tomb of Blessed Bartolo Longo in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary in Pompeii. About three million pilgrims visit the basilica each year.Pompeii has more to offer than dusty ruins filled with plaster casts of people, and one unfortunate puppy, frozen in time. It is also, coincidently, home to the only church in Christendom built by an ex-Satanist.
It's the same old story: boy from a religious family goes away to university, falls in with a bunch of New Age Satanists, becomes a satanic high priest, thinks better of his decision and ultimately reverts to the Church; it's the basic satanic-rags-to-saintly-riches story.
I didn't believe this story when I first learned about Blessed Bartolo Longo either. Having grown up the son of Italian immigrants, I was regaled with all of the lurid stories of El Barto's excesses, debauchery and general dissoluteness. I came to Pompeii not just for the ruins but also to see if the stories were true.
Bartolo Longo was born on February 10 1841 to a wealthy family in the small town of Latiano, near Brindisi in southern Italy. His parents, Dr Bartolomeo Longo and Antonina Luparelli, were devout Catholics who prayed the rosary together daily.
When Longo's mother died in 1851, he slowly drifted away from his Catholic faith. He was left to his own devices when he studied law at the University of Naples and became involved with a New Age pagan group which ultimately "ordained" him a satanist priest. He participated in séances, fortune-telling and the de rigueur orgies. Unsatisfied with merely practising his new pagan religion, he felt it important to publicly ridicule Christianity and did everything within his power to subvert Catholic influence. He even convinced many other Catholics to leave the Church and participate in occult rites.
But none of these activities brought him joy. In fact, his life was marked by extreme depression, paranoia, confusion and nervousness. He even began to show signs of demonic obsession, as opposed to demonic possession, which included being inflicted by diabolical visions and continually declining poor health. He ultimately experienced a mental breakdown.
In his despair, he heard the voice of his deceased father urging him to "Return to God! Return to God!" In fear and desperation, Longo turned to Professor Vincenzo Pepe, a friend from his home town, for guidance. Vincenzo convinced Longo to abandon Satan and introduced him to the Dominican priest, Fr Alberto Radente. Fr Radente heard his Confession and helped him to further reclaim his life.
One evening, as he walked near-chapel at Pompeii, Bartolo had a profound mystical experience. He wrote: "As I pondered over my condition, I experienced a deep sense of despair and almost committed suicide. Then I heard an echo in my ear of the voice of Friar Alberto repeating the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary: 'If you seek salvation, promulgate the rosary. This is Mary's own promise.' These words illumined my soul. I went on my knees. 'If it is true. I will not leave this valley until I have propagated your rosary.'"
To prove his new-found commitment to Christ and His Church Bartolo even attended a séance. In the midst of it, he stood and raised a medal of the Blessed Virgin Mother and cried out: "I renounce spiritism because it is nothing but a maze of error and falsehood."
On March 25 1871, as part of his self-imposed penance, Longo became a Third Order Dominican, taking the name Brother Rosario in honour of the rosary. He joined a charitable group in Pompeii and worked alongside Countess Mariana di Fusco, a wealthy local widow whom he married a year later on Pope Leo XIII's recommendation.
The happy couple decided to start a confraternity of the rosary. To serve as a spiritual focus for this group, Bartolo needed a painting of the Blessed Virgin. Sister Maria Concetta de Litala of the Monastery of the Rosary at Porta Medina offered him one that she got at a Neapolitan junk shop. She paid only 3.40 lire - a tiny, insignificant sum even at the time.
The painting portrayed Our Lady of the Rosary with St Dominic and St Catherine of Siena. Though it was of modest artistic accomplishment and in very poor condition, it served Bartolo's purpose. He described it in his journal: "Not only was it worm-eaten, but the face of the Madonna was that of a coarse, rough country-woman . a piece of canvas was missing just above her head . her mantle was cracked. Nothing need be said of the hideousness of the other figures. St Dominic looked like a street idiot. To Our Lady's left was a St Rose. This I had changed later into a St Catherine of Siena . I hesitated whether to refuse the gift or to accept . I took it."
In addition, the sorcerer turned born-again Catholic restored a ramshackle church in October 1873 and then sponsored a feast in honour of Our Lady of the rosary. ...
Rate This Article
1 - 10 of 11 Comments
Leave a Comment
More Christian Saints & Heroes News
- St. Catherine of Sienna Calls Each One of Us to Love God Right Where We Are
- After the Corned Beef: St. Patrick Challenges Modern Christians to be Missionaries
- Bet you didn't know these 10 things about St. Patrick and Ireland!
- The Vision of St. John Bosco and the Papacy of Benedict XVI
- St. Thomas Aquinas is a Model for the New Evangelization
- Saint John Neumann Calls us all to Apostolic Charity and Courageous Christianity
- Who are you? John the Baptizer, Basil and Gregory Nazianzen Call Christian Men to Live as Friends
- Prophetic Pope Paul VI, a Champion of Human Life, Now Venerable
- Feast of St Francis Xavier Calls for New Evangelization Missionaries For the West
Featured News
- Fr. Paul Schenck: Finding Living Faith on Catechetical Sunday
- The Movie Yellow: Incest as 'Normal' and Cassavates's Slides Into the World of Woes
- The Chicago School Teachers Strike Reveals the Need For School Choice
- The Sexual Barbarians and the Dissolution of Culture
- The Happy Priest Challenges Us to Ask: Who is Jesus to Me?
- Michael Coren on Canadian Public Schools: Teachers, leave those kids alone
- We Cannot Ignore Our Consciences: Cardinal Dolan On Religious Liberty
- In the Face of Danger, Successor of Peter Travels to Lebanon as a Messenger of Peace
- Reflections on the Dignity and Vocation of Women: Who or What?
Find Saints
Catholic Online offers the largest searchable database of Catholic Saints on the internet.
| Browse Saints by Alphabet |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
| Patron Saints by Alphabet |
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Videos
St. Francis of Assisi 78,864 views View Video
Padre Pio 47,309 views View Video
Black Saints Vol I 30,546 views View Video
Black Saints Vol II 27,092 views View Video
Most Popular
There's the problem! Americans are out of touch with scientific consensus on climate change Read More
Sex In Uniform: Why the Increase in Sexual Assaults in the Military? Read More
Culture of Corruption: Why Obama's misuse of Marines is wrong Read More
Bill Donohue, Catholic League, Disclose Fight with the IRS, Demonstrate Courage Read More
Pope Francis Shakes up the Ambassadors Meeting and Addresses Economic Issues Read More
Daily Readings
Reading 1, Sirach 5:1-8
Do not put your confidence in your money or say, 'With this I ... Read More
Psalm, Psalms 1:1-2, 3-4, 6
How blessed is anyone who rejects the advice of the wicked and ... Read More
Gospel, Mark 9:41-50
'If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong ... Read More
Saint of the Day
St. John Baptist Rossi
May 23: This holy priest was born in 1698 at the village of Voltaggio in ... Read More
Latest Videos
BREAKING: British Soldier Beheaded On UK Street 2013 View Video
Mass singing in St. Peter, Vatican View Video
Miss Crosswhite, the Oklahoma teacher that dared to pray View Video
Marketplace
The Joy of Being Catholic
Fr. McCarthy awakens and helps to renew our Catholic joys that ... Read More
Lourdes Water Crystal Rosary
A beautiful gift of devotion, this Lourdes Water Crystal Rosary makes ... Read More




Print















I READ THE STORY OF BLESSED BARTOLO ONCE BEFORE WHEN I WAS IN LIVING IN A MONASTERY IN SPAIN. NOW THAT I AM BACK WORKING FOR THE GOOD LORD IN WORLD, i HAVE JUST BEING GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO VISIT HIS SHRINE NEXT MONTH. What a truly inspiring story of how true devotion to our blessed mother can lead to one life like Bartolo being totally transformed to service for her son.
Thank you for this wonderful article! I've been looking for more information on Bl. Bartholomew's life for about a year, and this article really helps as I am working to promote devotion to Bl. Bartholomew and promote him for sainthood. I love his life story, proving that there is no point at which we are too far gone for Christ to bring us back!
Blessed Bartholomew Longo, pray for us!
Great story
Blessed Bartolo Longo, pray for us.
Amen. There is hope today. I pray were all work toward sainthood someday.
St Rose of Lima, perhaps. God bless you. May she pray for you and me. Amen.
I first heard about this story from the book Exorcisms and the Church Militant. Awesome story!
Thank you for the article.
This story is wonderfully encouraging and also inspiring.May the Blessed Bartolo's story inspire other satanists to retrace their steps to God and more easily through Mary.
Wow, what an inspiration. I pray that the secular world will become more faithful again and turn their back on the Devil and embrace the Catholic Church once again.