The founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii will be proclaimed a saint alongside Pier Giorgio Frassati, also a lay member of the Third Order of Saint Dominic
The canonisation of Blessed Bartolo Longo is scheduled for Sunday, 19 October 2025
On 13 June 2025, Pope Leo XIV presided over the Ordinary Public Consistory for the Canonisation of eight blessed individuals, including two lay members of the Third Order of Saint Dominic: Pier Giorgio Frassati and Bartolo Longo, who will be proclaimed saints, Pier Giorgio on 7 September 2025 and Bartolo Longo on 19 October, as announced by the Office for Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.
Bartolo Longo, founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, was devoted to Saint Dominic and the Holy Rosary, to whose dissemination he dedicated his life after his conversion, to which Friar Alberto Radente, OP, contributed. In fact, while studying law at the University of Naples, “he found himself immersed in a strong anti-Christian cyclone, where rationalism and anti-clericalism, reinforced by Freemasonry, led him completely astray from the right path,” but “he was saved from this deviation thanks to his friendship with Professor Vincenzo Pepe, an upright Christian, who invited him to confide his doubts to Father Alberto Radente, a learned and holy Dominican religious,” as highlighted in the biography of the blessed published on the website of the Province of St. Thomas Aquinas in Italy.
After his conversion, Bartolo Longo devoted himself body and soul to religion and charity, and in 1872, while in the Valley of Pompeii, he heard a voice saying to him: “If you spread the Rosary, you will be saved!” From that moment on, he tirelessly spread the devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary. He began by catechising the peasants; then he restructured the small parish church of the Most Holy Saviour and, following the advice of the Bishop of Nola, decided to build a new church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, which would become the world-famous sanctuary. He also wrote and spread the pious practice of the “Fifteen Saturdays” of the Rosary.
He founded the newspaper “Il Rosario e la Nuova Pompei” (“The Rosary and New Pompeii”) and, thanks to it, a real town sprang up around the new church, with houses for workers, a telegraph office, a railway station and a small hospital. He also founded the Girls’ Orphanage, the first of his charitable works for children and adolescents, as he would also create a hospice for the children of prisoners, run by the Brothers of the Christian Schools of St. John Baptist de La Salle, and for the daughters of prisoners, entrusted to the care of the Dominican Sisters “Daughters of the Most Holy Rosary of Pompeii.”
Longo’s work received its first solemn recognition with his beatification by John Paul II on 26 October 1980. Almost forty-five years later, on 25 February 2025, Pope Francis approved the favourable votes of the Ordinary Session of the Cardinal Fathers and Bishops for the canonisation of the Blessed,” as highlighted in his biography, published on the website of the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, the translation of which we publish below:
Blessed Bartolo Longo
Bartolo Longo was born on 10 February 1841 in Latiano, in the province of Brindisi (Italy), and in 1863 he arrived in Naples to complete his law studies. Through friends and teachers, he became involved in spiritualism, completely abandoning the Catholic faith in which he had been raised. However, thanks to Professor Vincenzo Pepe and the Dominican Father Alberto Radente, he returned to the right path.
His conversion was complete, and he devoted himself body and soul to religion and charity. Thanks to the noblewoman Caterina Volpicelli, now a saint, he met Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco, who had been widowed at a young age and had five small children. The noblewoman, originally from Apulia, who married Bartolo Longo in Naples on 1 April 1885, was decisive in the realisation of all the work in Pompeii, to which she contributed with her financial resources and her ideas, which often determined Longo’s decisions.
It was precisely to take charge of Marianna’s properties that Bartolo Longo arrived in the Valley of Pompeii in 1872. Walking through the fields, he felt the doubt that had been tormenting him for some time come to the fore in his heart: how could he be saved, given the unedifying experiences of his past life? It was midday and the sound of bells was accompanied by a voice: “If you spread the Rosary, you will be saved!”.
He then understood his vocation and decided that he would not leave the Valley of Pompeii without spreading devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary. He began by catechising the peasants; then he restructured the small parish church of the Most Holy Saviour and, following the advice of the Bishop of Nola, decided to build a new church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.
On 13 November 1875, the miraculous image of Our Lady of the Rosary arrived in Pompeii. First from Naples and then, little by little, from all over the world, donations began to arrive for the construction of the new church, the first stone of which was laid on 8 May 1876. The following year, Longo wrote and disseminated the pious practice of the “Fifteen Saturdays.” Two years later, he himself was cured of a serious illness thanks to the recitation of the Novena of Impetration that he had composed, of which 900 editions were immediately published in 22 languages.
On 14 October 1883, twenty thousand pilgrims gathered in Pompeii to pray for the first time the Supplication to Our Lady of the Rosary, which had sprung from the heart of Bartolo Longo in response to the Encyclical Supremi Apostolatus Officio (1 September 1883), in which Leo XIII indicated precisely the recitation of the Rosary as a remedy for the evils afflicting the contemporary world.
In 1884, he founded the newspaper Il Rosario e la Nuova Pompei (The Rosary and New Pompeii). Meanwhile, thanks to him, a real town sprang up around the new church, with houses for the workers – one of the first examples of social housing, anticipating the attention given to social issues in Rerum Novarum – a telegraph office, a railway station, a small hospital, a meteorological observatory and a geodynamic observatory. In 1887, he founded the Orphanage for Girls, the first of his charitable works for children and adolescents.
A few years later, in 1891, Cardinal Raffaele Monaco La Valletta consecrated the new temple. The Sanctuary of Pompeii became increasingly well known and faithful of all kinds asked for the most diverse graces. Prisoners also turned to Longo to ask him to take care of their children ( ). It was during this period that the saint had what is still considered his most original intuition: not only to believe in the possibility of the rehabilitation of the children of prisoners, but to bet on the possibility that they, in turn, could save their parents from despair.
In 1892, the first stone was laid for the Hospice for Prisoners’ Children, run since 1907 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools of St. John Baptist de La Salle. In just six years, it had more than a hundred pupils. The first child to be taken in, a Calabrian, became a priest.
Later, the daughters of prisoners were also taken in at Pompeii and entrusted to the care of the Dominican Sisters “Daughters of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii”, founded in 1897. In fact, on 4 August of that year, Longo and his wife Marianna asked Cardinal Camillo Mazzella, Pontifical Vicar for the Shrine of Pompeii, for the canonical erection of the new Congregation, which was officially approved on 25 August.
On 5 May 1901, the façade of the Basilica was inaugurated, built with contributions from the faithful from all over the world and dedicated to Universal Peace.
On 9 February 1924, Countess Marianna died, while Bartolo Longo, who was conferred the title of Knight Grand Cross of the Holy Sepulchre by Pius XI the following year, died at the age of eighty-five on 5 October 1926. Two years later, thanks to the commitment of Brother Adriano di Maria, of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, who continued the work of the lawyer, Pompeii was recognised as an autonomous municipality. Longo’s work received its first solemn recognition with his beatification by John Paul II on 26 October 1980.
Almost forty-five years later, on 25 February 2025, Pope Francis approved the favourable votes of the Ordinary Session of the Cardinal Fathers and Bishops for the canonisation of the Blessed.
