ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER
Saints celebrated on the 5th of October
BLESSED BARTHOLOMEW LONGO
Bartolo Longo was born into a wealthy family on February 10, 1841 in the small town of Latiano, near Brindisi, in southern Italy. His parents were devout Roman Catholics. He went to the University of Naples to study law.
There, he came under the influence of some students who dabbled in witchcraft and consulted Neapolitan mediums. This led him into a Satanist cult. life then became one of "depression, nervousness, and confusion".
Bothered by paranoia and anxiety, Saint Bartolo turned to a hometown friend, Vincenzo Pepe, for guidance. It was Pepe who convinced him, in Bartolo Longo's account, to abandon Satanism and introduced him to the Dominican Father Alberto Radente who led him to a devotion to the Rosary.
On October 7, 1871, Saint Bartolo became a Dominican tertiary and took the name "Rosario". He also came to know some Franciscans with whom he helped the poor and incurably ill for two years. Saint Bartolo also kept up his law practice, which took him to the nearby village of Pompeii. At one point, he noted struggling with suicidal thoughts, but rejected them by recalling the promise of Saint Dominic, "he who propagates my Rosary will be saved." Longo wrote that this promise is what convinced him to encourage public devotion to the rosary.
With the help of Countess Mariana di Fusco, one of his clients, he inaugurated a confraternity of the Rosary and in October 1873 started restoring a dilapidated church. He sponsored a festival in honour of Our Lady of the Rosary.
In 1875, Saint Bartolo obtained as a gift a painting portraying Our Lady of the Rosary, with Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena. The painting was in bad condition and Saint Bartolo raised funds to restore the image and placed it in the church in an effort to encourage pilgrimages.
Alleged miracles began to be reported and people began flocking in droves to the church. Saint Bartolo was encouraged by the Bishop of Nola to begin the construction of a larger church - the cornerstone being laid on May 8, 1876. The church was consecrated in May 1891 by Cardinal La Valletta (representing Pope Leo XIII).
Bartolo Longo and the Countess Mariana di Fusco were married on April 7, 1885. The couple remained continent (abstained from intercourse), and continued to do many charitable works and provided for orphaned children and the children of prisoners.
In 1906 they donated the entire property of the Pompeii shrine to the Holy See. Saint Bartolo continued promoting the Rosary until his death on October 5, 1926, at the age of 85. His body is encased in a glass tomb and he is wearing the mantle of a Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, a papal order of knighthood.
Bartolo Longo was canonised in October 2025 by Pope Leo XIV.
(Information from Wikipedia)
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