Pope Francis:

“…approved the favorable votes of the Ordinary Session of the Cardinals and Bishops of the Dicastery for the canonization of Blessed Bartolo Longo, lay faithful, born in Latiano (Italy) on February 10, 1841, and died in Pompeii (Italy) on October 5, 1926.

Blessed Bartolo was a lawyer from Naples who initially despised the Church, but converted and became responsible for establishing the Shrine of the Holy Rosary at Pompeii.”

Blessed Bartolo Longo was a former “Satanic priest” who returned to the Catholic faith. He dedicated his life to the propagation of the Rosary and the Virgin Mary.

Read further on Pope Francis’ decree here (but come back, because after the photo below of Bl. Bartolo there’s more REALLY GOOD STUFF):

Bartolo Longo had become a Satanic priest in his youth. (Wikipedia has a good biography on him.) However, he began having problems with mental illness, paranoia, depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. A friend introduced him to a Dominican friar and priest, who convinced him to leave Satanism and return to Catholicism. The Dominican led him into a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Rosary. 

The rest is history. (Although it should be noted that he aided in restoring a church, at which numerous mircles occurred. This church is now the Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei.)

He also developed a new devotional practice called “The Fifteen Saturdays of the Holy Rosary.”

Bartolo Longo, the apostle of the Rosary, is also the apostle of the Fifteen Saturdays, which he in his times spread throughout the world, pouring an alluring spirituality into the pages complied by himself.

What are the “Fifteen Saturdays”?

The practice of the Fifteen Saturdays consists in pledging oneself to live, for fifteen consecutive Saturdays, the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary, which, in synthesis, are the story of our salvation, the Gospel we pray along with the Mother of God.

That which above all emerges in this holy practice is participation in the Eucharist, in memory of the Son of God, having become incarnate, having died, having risen; therefore, deep meditation of a mystery is reserved to each Saturday, along with the reciting of the entire Rosary.

You can read more about this devotion, including when to practice it and what prayers to say at: Fifteen Saturdays of The Most Holy Rosary A Very Efficacious Devotion To Obtain All Kinds Of Graces courtesy of the Rosarian

I will write more about him and elaborate on his life, God willing. I think that Bartolo Longo would be a very good saint for readers of this blog to develop a relationship with.

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