Saint Bartolo Longo

Bartolo Longo, TOSD (10 February 1841 – 5 October 1926) was an Italian lawyer and former Satanic priest who returned to the Catholic faith and became a Dominican tertiary, dedicating his life to the rosary and the Virgin Mary. He was eventually awarded a papal knighthood of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. He was canonized by Pope Leo XIV on October 19, 2025. Bartolo Longo was born into a wealthy family on February 10, 1841, in the small town of Latiano, near Brindisi, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. His parents were devout Catholics. In 1851, Longo's father died and his mother remarried a lawyer. Despite Longo's stepfather wanting him to study in order to become a teacher, Longo was set on becoming a lawyer. In 1861, Longo succeeded in convincing his stepfather and was sent to the University of Naples to study law. In the 1860s, the Catholic Church in Italy found itself at odds with the strong nationalistic movement that inspired the cause for Risorgimento. General Giuseppe Garibaldi, who played a key role in Italian unification, saw the papacy as an antagonist to Italian nationalism and actively campaigned for the elimination of the papal office altogether. The Church in Europe was also competing with the growing popularity of Spiritualism and Occultism. Because of this, many students at the University of Naples took part in public demonstrations against the pope, believed in witchcraft, and consulted Neapolitan mediums. According to Longo, after some study and several spiritual experiences, he was ordained as a Satanic priest. Over the next year, Longo apparently suffered, "with a body reduced to skin and bones, two possessed eyes, frazzled nerves, a devilish beard, and a stomach ailment doomed to accompany him for the rest of his life. … He felt an ominous presence at his side, a being, that he referred to as his 'angel' … dark companion." His life became one of "depression, nervousness, and confusion".