The story of Blessed Bartolo Longo stands as one of the most powerful testimonies to the grace of God and the intercessory power of the Blessed Virgin Mary through Her Holy Rosary. Few conversions in Church history are as dramatic, as complete, and as edifying as that of this 19th-century Italian lawyer, who once served as a “high priest” of satanism – yet died a faithful Catholic, a Dominican tertiary, and a Knight of the Holy Sepulcher.
A Descent into Darkness
Bartolo Longo was born in 1841 in Latiano (near Brindisi, Italy). Like everyone in this southern village, he was raised in a devout Catholic family. They prayed the Rosary together daily.
But as a young man, he distanced himself from the Church when his mother died (1851), and he began a long slide into alienation, depression, and hatred. Matters were further compounded when he fell under the sway of the anti-clerical, occultic, and rationalist movements that were sweeping through Italy in the wake of the Enlightenment and Napoleonic Revolutions. Freemasonic sects were extremely active and, along with “liberal nationalists,” were pushing for Italian unification, abolition of the papal states, and destruction of papal power.
While studying law at the University of Naples, Longo became involved in drugs, séances, spiritism, and eventually full-blown satanism. He was ordained a “priest” in a satanic sect – a shocking betrayal of the faith in which he was baptized. He believed he could practice “real” magic. He unceasingly ridiculed Christianity. He derived perverse pleasure from convincing Catholics to abandon the True Faith; a skill at which he was quite adept.
But his descent into evil did not bring him peace. On the contrary, Bartolo began to suffer from terrifying hallucinations, paranoia, depression, and suicidal thoughts. He later wrote of this dark time: “I was harassed by devilish visions, voices, nightmares. I went through a profound psychic crisis and was plunged into a dark despair.” His family, still fervently praying for his return to the Church, convinced him to seek help from a holy Dominican priest, Fr. Alberto Radente.
Fr. Radente became an instrument of mercy in the hands of God. He helped Bartolo return to the Sacraments and taught him about the Rosary as a spiritual weapon against temptation and despair. Longo made a heartfelt confession and turned completely away from satanism. In 1871, he was received as a Third Order Dominican, taking the name “Brother Rosario”, and embraced a life of penance and reparation for the terrible offenses he had committed.
Saved by the Rosary
Although reconciled with God, Bartolo was still tormented by guilt. His past sins weighed heavily upon him. He feared eternal damnation, and at one point even contemplated suicide. It was then that he remembered the words attributed to Our Lady through St. Dominic: “He who propagates my Rosary shall be saved.”
Those words became a lifeline for Longo. He wrote: “As I pondered this promise, I resolved to dedicate my entire life to the Rosary. This is the path by which I shall save my soul.”
From that moment on, Bartolo Longo’s life was consumed with devotion to Our Lady and Her Rosary. He began to spread the Rosary wherever he could – preaching missions, giving out rosaries, teaching others to pray it, and encouraging public processions and recitations of the Rosary in areas where the faith had grown cold. He understood the Rosary not only as a private devotion but as a public proclamation of the truths of the Faith. He later wrote: “Oh, if only I could have an immense voice so as to invite all the sinners of the world to love the Rosary of Mary!”
The Miracle of the New Pompeii
In Pompeii, then a ruined and superstitious countryside, Bartolo found his life’s mission. He began to rebuild a crumbling chapel and catechize the local people, many of whom were barely literate in the Faith. He organized public Rosaries, taught children the catechism, and established religious associations dedicated to Our Lady. Eventually, with help from a benefactress named Countess Mariana di Fusco (whom he later married in a Josephite union upon the recommendation of Pope Leo XIII), Bartolo spearheaded the construction of what would become the Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Pompeii.
Miracles began to occur. Reports of healings, conversions, and special graces were attributed to Our Lady of Pompeii and the praying of the Rosary. Pilgrims arrived in ever greater numbers. The Vatican took notice. Pope Leo XIII, the “Pope of the Rosary,” blessed Longo’s work and named him a Knight of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher.
In one of his most stirring reflections in The History of the Shrine of Pompeii, Blessed Bartolo contrasted the ruins of pagan Pompeii with the new spiritual edifice being built through Mary:
“Next to a land of the dead appeared, quite suddenly, a land of resurrection and life: next to a shattered amphitheater soiled with blood, there is a living Temple of faith and love, a sacred Temple to the Virgin Mary… From a town buried in the filth of gentilism arises a town full of life, drawing its origins from a new civilization brought by Christianity: The New Pompeii!”
A Saint for Our Times
Bartolo Longo died in 1926, poor in worldly goods but rich in grace. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980, who praised him as “a man of the Virgin Mary” and “an example for modern times.” His tomb bears the simple inscription he requested: “I have been a slave of satan, but now I am a slave of Mary.”
Bartolo never stopped offering reparation for the evil he had committed. In particular, he sought out young people at cafes and local places of entertainment to convince them of the reality and evils of occult practices. Today about three million people annually visit the basilica he built and venerate his tomb. In a sermon, Pope Benedict XVI likened him to St. Paul of Tarsus, who also first persecuted the Church before becoming a great promoter of the Gospel.
Bartolo’s story and miraculous conversion are based on indisputable records which can withstand even the most rigorous modern historical criticism. His memoirs of being immersed in occult practices are a powerful antidote to a world that no longer believes the devil exists. Miracles that God worked through the Rosary and Bartolo’s intercession are supported by medical science and human testimony. His witness cannot be debunked by disbelieving academics or simply dismissed as the product of uneducated or superstitions simpletons. In Bartolo Longo, God has providentially manifested a witness of unimpeachable credibility for our modern disbelieving age.
His remarkable life reminds us of the limitless mercy of God and the spiritual power of the Rosary, even to save a soul in the deepest darkness. His struggles with depression, mental illness, and despair are familiar to many today – and so is his path out of that darkness: the daily Rosary, lived and proclaimed.
Pray a Rosary for Those in Darkness
If the Rosary could rescue a satanic priest and bring him to the heights of sanctity, then surely no sinner is beyond hope. Blessed Bartolo Longo himself urges us to pray the Rosary for those trapped in sin, confusion, and spiritual bondage. Let us commend to Our Lady all who suffer from despair, from occult involvement, and from the torments of the enemy.
Let us pray also for Blessed Longo’s canonization and invoke his intercession for the conversion of all who oppose God and the Church. Pray a Rosary today for such a soul – and trust that our Blessed Mother Mary will do the rest.
Blessed Bartolo Longo, pray for us.