Saint Bartolo Longo A Life Reclaimed Through the Rosary

St. Bartolo Longo

Bartolo Longo was born on February 10, 1841, in Latiano, Italy, and grew up in a Catholic family. While studying law in Naples, he abandoned the faith of his childhood and became involved in spiritualism and occult ceremonies. Accounts of his life describe his initiation as a “priest of Satan” within that circle. These experiences brought increasing distress and confusion. The future apostle of the Rosary first needed help finding his own way back to Christ.

That help came through friendship and spiritual guidance. Professor Vincenzo Pepe encouraged Bartolo to speak with Father Alberto Radente, a Dominican priest. Through their influence, he returned to the Catholic faith and began devoting himself to prayer and charity. His conversion changed the direction of his life. The lawyer who had turned away from the Church now sought to repair the harm of his past and place his abilities at the service of God and others.

Bartolo entered the Dominican Third Order, taking the name Rosario in honor of the Rosary. As a lay Dominican, he pursued holiness through prayer and service while continuing his life in the world. Yet memories of his former involvement in the occult troubled him. He feared that his past had placed salvation beyond his reach. Dominican accounts describe how remembering Father Radente’s encouragement to spread the Rosary helped him move from despair toward renewed confidence in God’s mercy.

In 1872, Bartolo traveled to the Valley of Pompeii to manage property belonging to Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco, a widow with five children. There, his spiritual struggle became connected with a particular mission. He understood an interior inspiration as a call to spread devotion to the Rosary. He began teaching the faith to local farmers and helping restore the deteriorating parish church. His renewed trust in God took practical form among the people of the valley.

On November 13, 1875, an image of Our Lady of the Rosary arrived in Pompeii. With encouragement from the bishop of Nola, Bartolo and the countess undertook the construction of a new church. Its first stone was laid on May 8, 1876, and the church was consecrated in 1891. Donations supported the growing undertaking. What began with catechism lessons and work on a small parish developed into a Marian shrine known far beyond the valley.

Bartolo and Marianna married on April 1, 1885. Her resources and active participation helped sustain their shared work. Around the shrine, religious devotion grew alongside efforts to improve people’s lives. Bartolo founded an orphanage for girls in 1887, and in 1897 the couple sought the establishment of the Dominican Sisters, Daughters of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii. Prayer, education, and care for vulnerable children became enduring parts of the foundation they built together.

He gave particular attention to children whose parents were imprisoned. In 1892, he established an institute for prisoners’ sons, and another for their daughters followed in 1922. These works offered care and education to children facing hardship and exclusion. His devotion to Mary continually brought him into contact with people who needed help. The shrine became a place where pilgrimage and prayer stood beside concrete works of mercy, expressing the connection between love for Christ and responsibility for the poor.

Bartolo also spread the Rosary through his writings and the practice of the Fifteen Saturdays. Saint John Paul II later praised his promotion of its contemplative character, centered upon Christ. Through meditation on the mysteries, Bartolo encouraged people to become familiar with the lives of Jesus and Mary and to imitate their virtues. The prayer that had helped restore his own confidence became a means through which he invited others to grow in faith, patience, and love.

Bartolo died in Pompeii on October 5, 1926, aged eighty five. Saint John Paul II beatified him on October 26, 1980, and Pope Leo XIV canonized him on October 19, 2025. His liturgical memorial is October 5. His life offers hope to those burdened by their past. Through repentance, faithful prayer, and decades of service, the man who had once abandoned Christianity became a saint whose work joined devotion to the Rosary with care for children and families in need.

For a devotional image of St. Bartolo, click here: Maryvale Catholic Press