Saint Who?
Saints Who Promoted the Rosary
Blessed Bartolo Longo
Layman († 1926)Feast: October 5
“My only purpose in thirty-three years of service has been that of saving my soul and that of my brother by spreading the rosary.” Bartolo Longo was born to a family of devout Catholics near Naples, Italy. During his university years, he embraced false philosophies and eventually became enmeshed in the occult.
Physically and mentally sickened, he finally sought help from a Dominican priest. On October 7, 1871, he became a Third Order Dominican, taking the name Brother Rosario. Devotion to the rosary became his lifeline. On one occasion, he was tempted to despair because of his former life. Then he remembered the promise of Our Lady that those who propagate the rosary will be saved. He began to promote the rosary with great fervor.
Bartolo founded a shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompei, which soon grew into a basilica, and continues to attract millions of pilgrims annually. He also established a religious institute, the Daughters of the Most Holy Rosary of Pompeii. He died in 1926 at eighty-five, and was beatified in 1980. Saint John Paul II said of him: “Rosary in hand, Blessed Bartolo Longo says to each of us: Awaken your confidence in the Most Blessed Virgin of the Rosary. Venerable Holy Mother, in you I rest all my troubles, all my trust, and all my hope!”
Heavenly Father, by the power of the rosary and through the intercession of Blessed Bartolo Longo, deliver all
who are entrapped in the snares of the enemy.
