Bartolo Longo (Latiano, February 10, 1841 – Scafati, October 5, 1926) was the founder and benefactor of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii and a member of the Lay Fraternity of Saint Dominic.
He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 26, 1980, and canonized in 2025 following the approval given by Pope Francis during his stay at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome on February 24, 2025.
Biography
Birth and early life
Son of Bartolomeo, a physician and Antonia Luparelli, he was baptized three days after his birth, on February 13, 1841 in Latiano, in the Parish of Santa Maria della Neve, now part of the Diocese of Oria and then known as Terra d’Otranto.
Small in stature, but possessing a keen intelligence, Bartolo Longo began his studies at the age of five, as was the custom at the time, at the Piarist Fathers’ college in Francavilla Fontana. He left the college in 1858, after obtaining a degree that qualified him to teach “grammar rudiments.”
Of affluent means, the young Bartolo Longo devoted himself passionately to dance, music, and fencing, while also completing his higher education privately in Lecce.
The university period
With the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to the Kingdom of Italy, the Casati Law, which aimed to standardize education and create a homogeneous national school system, was extended throughout the newly unified territory.
This, however, meant that all qualifications previously earned in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies would no longer be recognized and validated by the new state structure.
Bartolo Longo’s academic path was therefore derailed, as he was forced to enroll at the Royal University of Naples to study law.
From perdition to conversion
In those years, Naples, especially in the academic world, was marked by strong anticlericalism. During his studies in Naples, Bartolo Longo also became involved with a spiritualist and Satanist group and became a Satanist “priest” for about a year and a half.
After a night of nightmares, he turned to Professor Vincenzo Pepe, who sent him to the spiritual direction of Father Alberto Radente, a member of the Dominican order. Bartolo Longo returned to the sacraments and over time developed a strong devotion to the Holy Rosary, finding significant spiritual benefit from it.
In 1864, he graduated in law and returned to Latiano, abandoning his legal profession and dedicating himself to charitable work, beginning what would become his mission for Christianity.
Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco
To pursue his calling to help the needy, he returned to Naples, where he met the future saint Ludovico da Casoria and the future saint Caterina Volpicelli. At the Central House that Volpicelli had opened in Naples, he met Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco, a woman deeply committed to charitable and welfare works and his future wife.
Shortly after Bartolo Longo’s arrival in Naples, the countess became a widow with five children. When she asked him to become administrator of her landed estate in the town of Valle di Pompei, Bartolo Longo accepted, driven also by the desire to spread the prayer of the Holy Rosary among the peasants, who were in need of moral and spiritual redemption.
He married the countess to silence the gossip about them, and with her he became a father to both his children and to orphans and the poor.
Arrival in Pompei
In 1872, Bartolo Longo traveled to the Pompei Valley to settle the financial relations between Countess De Fusco and the tenants of her estates. One day, wandering through the fields in the Arpaia district, Bartolo heard a mysterious voice saying to him: “If you propagate the Rosary, you will be saved!” Immediately afterward, he heard the echo of a distant bell ringing the midday Angelus.
At that point, his mission became even clearer, and he began planning the establishment of a society devoted to the Holy Rosary.
The last years
Bartolo Longo wrote until his last breath, prayed, and worked tirelessly for the Madonna, his sweet Queen and Lady. Among his most important works are the practice of the “Fifteen Saturdays” and the novena dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, works still recited today. In 1884, he founded the periodical “Il Rosario e la Nuova Pompei,” which is still active today.
On February 9, 1924, Countess De Fusco died, and fearing possible reprisals from the noblewoman’s heirs, he moved first to Naples and then returned to Latiano. During this period, many of his possessions were inventoried, and at the insistence of the Pompeians, he returned to Pompeii on April 23, 1925, in the same condition in which he had first arrived, possessing nothing, but finding the city awaiting him in celebration.
On May 30, 1925, he was awarded the pontifical honor of Knight Grand Cross of the Sacred and Military Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
Bartolo Longo died at the age of eighty-five in Pompeii on October 5, 1926. The beatification process began immediately after his death, but was delayed in the 1940s due to the need for additional documents to be included in the Inquisition. He was beatified on October 26, 1980.
His remains are venerated today in the chapel dedicated to him, annexed to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii. Almost forty-five years later, on February 25, 2025, Pope Francis approved the favorable votes of the Ordinary Session of Cardinals and Bishops for the canonization of the Blessed.
Bartolo Longo was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on several occasions, but was never awarded the prize.
In 1902, he was formally nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Pietro Chimienti, an Italian parliamentarian, as well as by a group of eight members of the Italian Senate and Chamber of Deputies, along with the luminary Antonio Cardarelli.
In 1903, he received a second nomination, presented by Vincenzo Giuseppe De Prisco and Luigi Simeoni, with recognition also from Pope Leo XIII, in recognition of his charitable and social commitment, albeit with a strong religious motivation.
His initiatives included a vast international petition for peace (over four million signatories between 1896 and 1900) and important social and spiritual projects.