Blessed Bartolo Longo
Today we meditate on the life of Blessed Bartolo Longo. He shares a feast day, October 5th, with St. Faustyna who we talked about yesterday.
One
Bl. Bartolo Longo was born on Italy's Adriatic coast in 1841.
At the age of ten, his mother died and Bartolo began to lose his way. During his time in Law School at the University of Naples, he completely gave up his faith.
In his confusion and emptiness, without God to turn to, he began to visit some of Naples’ infamous mediums. That was his introduction to the occult. Soon, his thirst for the supernatural led him into outright Satanism, where after a period of intense study and rigorous fasting, he was consecrated a satanic priest and promised his soul to a demon. For the next year, he began to preside over satanic services and to preach more boldly against God and the Church, treating them as the real evils.
Under this demonic influence, both his physical and psychological health deteriorated rapidly. In his despair, he heard the voice of his deceased father urging him, "Return to God! Return to God!"
Two
Conversion
A good friend and faithful Catholic professor, Vincent Pepe, persuaded Bartolo to meet with a Dominican Priest who was consecrated to Mary and dedicated to the Rosary.
The Priest befriended Bartolo and then confronted him about his obvious declining mental and physical health - which both knew, in this particular situation, resulted from demonic possession. After three weeks of lengthy conversations, on the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Bartolo went to Confession which drove the devil and demons out of His soul, flooding him once again with the life of the Most Holy Trinity.
But, even though God had forgiven him, Blessed Bartolo could not forgive himself.
One evening, as he walked near the broken-down Church at Pompeii, he had a profound mystical experience. He wrote, “As I pondered over my condition, I experienced a deep sense of despair and almost committed suicide. Then I heard an echo in my head of the voice of the Dominican Priest, repeating the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary: "Whoever spreads the Rosary is saved!” Falling to my knees, I exclaimed: ‘If your words are true that he who propagates your Rosary will be saved, I shall reach salvation because I shall not leave this earth without spreading your Rosary.'”
Three
From that moment until the day he died, Bartolo and his wife Mariana dedicated themselves to a three-fold mission.
To gather families and friends
Teach them the truths of the Catholic Faith
Teach them how to meditate through the Rosary
This is the mission for all husbands and wives, moms and dads, and grandparents. But it can be difficult because you may not feel equipped to do so. That is the purpose of this podcast.
And allow me to share with you a wonderful example.
A Friend of mine is a very successful and busy owner of a national company. However, for a long time, he did not take his faith seriously. It was all about the business. Finally, his wife told him he needed to take responsibility to be the spiritual leader of his family. So he began to gather his wife and seven kids every night before bed to pray the Rosary Podcast and now they have been doing it habitually for almost four years.
He had every excuse not to, but thanks to the prompting of his wife he is living the mission of Bartolo Longo - and so can you.
Whatever your life situation, take the initiative to gather with someone in person, over the phone, or computer, pray the podcast, and then talk about what struck you.
Blessed Bartolo was transformed from despair to hope by the words of Our Lady, "Whoever spreads the Rosary is saved!”
You too can be an Apostle of the Rosary.
Four
Apparition of Our Lady, Queen of the Holy Rosary
With the financial support of his wife Mariana, Bartolo rebuilt Pompeii’s famous Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary. In this church a miraculous event took place. The Blessed Mother appeared to a young girl, Fortuna Agrelli, who became ill with three separate incurable diseases. Her doctors gave up all hope.
One day, Fortuna was praying in this Church with her family before the image of Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary, when she received a vision. Sitting on a throne decorated with flowers with the Infant Jesus on her lap, Mary held a Rosary in her hand and was accompanied by St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena.
Fortuna cried out to Our Lady, "Queen of the Holy Rosary, be gracious to me, restore me to health."
The Blessed Virgin replied, "You have invoked me by various titles and have always obtained favors from me. Now, since you have called me by the title so pleasing to me, 'Queen of the Holy Rosary,' I can no longer refuse the favor that you petition; for this name is most precious and dear to me. Make three novenas, and you will obtain all."
On May 8, 1884, Fortuna was cured. Afterwards, Our Lady appeared again. This time she said, "Whoever desires to obtain favors from me should make three novenas of the Rosary in petition and three novenas in thanksgiving.” Meaning - To pray the Rosary for 27 days in petition, then 27 days in thanksgiving. This is the origin of the 54-Day Rosary Novena.
Five
Blessed Bartolo Longo had the habit of meditating on the whole life of Jesus and the whole of His teachings in the Catechism, not limiting his meditation in the Rosary to the 15 mysteries…Hmm… sounds familiar…It was this practice of Bl. Bartolo that inspired St. John Paul II to add the Luminous Mysteries to the Rosary.
In his letter on the Rosary, the Pope said, “even with the addition of the luminous mysteries, the mysteries of the Rosary do no more than outline the fundamental elements of the life of Christ, they should easily draw the mind to a more expansive reflection on the rest of the Gospel, especially when the Rosary is prayed in a setting of prolonged recollection.” Rosarium 29
Bartolo Longo saw the daily Rosary as a spiritual journey with two friends, Jesus and Mary. As we spend time with them, day after day in the Rosary, we start to become like them, little by little.
John Paul was captivated by the idea of the Rosary as a spiritual journey with friends and so he wrote, “Just as two friends, frequently in each other's company, tend to develop similar habits, so too, by holding conversation with Jesus and Mary, by meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary and by living the same life in Holy Communion, (that is, in friendship with them) we can become, to the extent of our openness, similar to them and can learn from these supreme models a life of humility, poverty, hiddenness, patience and perfection”. Rosarium 15