Overview
- Pope Leo XIV declared Bartolo Longo a saint at a World Mission Sunday liturgy in St. Peter’s Square, where seven people were canonized.
- Historical accounts say Longo dabbled in occult practices in his youth and allegedly bargained with a demon before renouncing spiritualism.
- Guided back to the Church by Professor Vincenzo Pepe and Dominican Father Alberto Radente, he embraced a life of repentance as a lay Dominican.
- He promoted Marian devotion and founded the Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary in Pompeii, along with orphanages and institutes for prisoners’ children.
- Reporting described a crowd of more than 700,000 at the ceremony, which also recognized an Armenian martyred archbishop, a Venezuelan 'doctor of the poor,' and several nuns.