Pope Leo XIV has officially declared Bartolo Longo, along with six others, as a new saint for the Catholic Church.
Longo was born in 1841 in Latiano, Italy, and trained as a lawyer. After the de@th of his father, he became involved in occult practices and reportedly served as a Satanic priest, engaging in extreme fasting and allegedly making a pact with a demon.
He later turned his life around before eventually being guided back to the Catholic faith by Professor Vincenzo Pepe.
After renouncing Satanism, Longo took a vow of celibacy and devoted himself to charitable works.
He founded the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii, as well as an orphanage for girls in 1887 and an institute for the sons of prisoners in 1892.
In 1922, he established another institute for the daughters of prisoners. He also volunteered for two years at the Neapolitan Hospital for Incurables.
Longo d!ed in 1926 and was remembered for his dramatic transformation from a life of darkness to one of faith and service, ultimately earning sainthood in the Catholic Church.
He was canonized along with six others, including three nuns, a Venezuelan ‘doctor of the poor’, and an archbishop killed in the Armenian genocide.
Pope Leo said on October 19: ‘Today we have before us seven witnesses, the new Saints, who, with God’s grace, kept the lamp of faith burning.
‘May their intercession assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness.’
Prior to his death in 1926, Longo did a great deal of the Lord’s work.
By 1871, he had become a third-order Dominican and was feverishly working to encourage people in Pompeii to return to their faith.
He went on to receive a portrait of Our Lady of the Rosary at Pompeii, and according to the Catholic News Agency, ‘miracles started to happen’.
On the first day Longo unveiled the picture to the public, a 12-year-old girl who suffered from ‘incurable’ epileptic seizures was said to have been ‘completely healed’.
Archbishop Tommaso Caputo of Pompei told EWTN of the saint’s work: “Longo arrived in Pompeii to take care of the properties of the countess and, walking through those streets – dangerous because of the presence of bandits and malaria – he felt an inner inspiration.
