Bartolo Longo, the Former Satanist who Became a Saint

The Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary at Pompeii, founded by St. Bartolo Longo. AI-generated illustration showing the shrine with later architectural additions.

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This past Monday, October 5, was the feast day of St. Bartolo Longo. It also marked the hundredth anniversary of his death in 1926 and his first October 5 feast since Pope Leo XIV canonized him on October 19, 2025. Longo is remembered as the Apostle of the Rosary and the founder of the great Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary at Pompeii. Yet what first caught my attention was the distance between his early life and his sainthood, particularly the suffering he continued to experience after returning to the Catholic Church.[1]

Before becoming a saint, Bartolo Longo had abandoned his childhood faith and immersed himself in Spiritualism, séances and occult practices. Dominican accounts describe him undergoing an initiation as a Satanic priest in a ceremony that parodied Catholic ordination.[2] His eventual conversion changed the direction of his life, but it did not immediately end his anguish. That aspect of his story became personal to me because I, too, returned to Catholicism after decades in an occult religious world and discovered that coming home did not make every disturbing experience disappear.

I was baptized and confirmed Catholic before spending over three decades practicing Tibetan Buddhism. During those years I believed I was following a path to enlightenment. My history differs substantially from Longo’s, but his struggle after conversion raised a question I recognized: how can someone sincerely return to Christ and still be haunted by the deities/demons from the life he has left?

From Catholicism to the Occult

Bartolo Longo was born in Latiano, southern Italy, on February 10, 1841. Raised in a Catholic family and educated by the Piarist Fathers, he eventually went to Naples to study law. His hometown parish describes an academic environment marked by anticlericalism, where his reading and the influence of teachers helped draw him away from Christianity. The Dominican Order’s biography also identifies rationalism and Freemasonry among the influences surrounding his loss of faith.[3]

What interests me about this setting is that rejection of Christianity did not necessarily mean rejection of spiritual experience. In Longo’s case, abandoning Catholic belief was followed by involvement in Spiritualism. According to the Dominican account, he attended séances and participated in occult ceremonies before undergoing what the group presented as an ordination to Satan’s priesthood. His hometown parish uses somewhat different terminology, describing a Spiritualist association that some called Satanic. The sources agree on his serious involvement, although their descriptions of the group are not entirely uniform.[2][3]

His health deteriorated dramatically. The Dominican Sisters of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary describe depression, paranoia and anxiety, accompanied by physical decline associated with extreme fasting. The parish in Latiano likewise reports a profound psychological and physical crisis and says the prolonged fasting damaged his digestive system.[4]

A later devotional biography, quoted in the Wikipedia account, gives an especially vivid description of that deterioration. It portrays Longo as emaciated, his nerves exhausted, his appearance alarming and his stomach permanently damaged. It also reports that he felt an ominous presence beside him, something he called his “angel,” described by the biographer as a “dark companion.”[5] In Tibetan Buddhism the yidam, or meditational deity, the dharma protectors, and even the Root Guru may accompany the practitioner in a similar manner and they don’t suddenly relinquish their connection when a person converts to Christianity.

The People Who Helped Him Return

Professor Vincenzo Pepe, a devout friend from Longo’s hometown, recognized that he needed help. The parish biography recounts that Longo turned to him after a night of nightmares. Pepe introduced him to Fr. Alberto Radente, a Dominican priest who patiently helped bring him back to Catholicism. Longo returned to confession and the sacraments and began rebuilding his life around religious practice and charitable work.[4][6]

Caterina Volpicelli, later canonized herself, also became an important figure in his Catholic life. Through her, he met Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco, a young widow with five children who would become his collaborator and eventually his wife.[6] His recovery of faith occurred within relationships with people who offered guidance and gave him opportunities to serve.

Longo’s renunciation sometimes took a public form. Dominican author Br. Ezra Sullivan recounts that he returned to a séance, raised his Rosary and declared, “I renounce spiritualism because it is nothing but a maze of error and falsehood.”[7] Other retellings describe him holding a Marian medal, so the precise object varies across accounts.[11] The consistent point is that he openly repudiated his former practices.

In 1871 he became a Dominican tertiary and took the name Rosario. Accounts also describe his work alongside Franciscans caring for poor and incurably ill people while he continued practicing law.[7][8] He had rejected his former commitments and begun living a recognizably Catholic life. Yet the distress associated with his past had not entirely subsided.

Conversion Did Not Immediately End His Suffering

This is the part of Longo’s story I wanted to understand more closely. He had returned to the Church, received the sacraments and undertaken works of charity, but he remained vulnerable to guilt and despair. The Dominican Sisters place a renewed crisis in Pompeii in 1872, after his conversion and after he had become a Dominican tertiary. They describe him as “still wrestling with guilt over his past.”[4]

The persistence of his suffering is also addressed explicitly in a post-canonization interview with Dominican Fr. Joseph-Anthony Kress. Discussing Longo’s relevance to people experiencing mental illness, Kress said that he continued struggling with his mental health and with suicidal thoughts after conversion. He challenged the assumption that becoming Catholic should make such difficulties immediately disappear.[9]

Longo’s religious commitment and his psychological distress existed together. What troubled him was whether their consequences could ever be overcome, and whether forgiveness was truly possible for someone who had gone so far into the occult as he had.

Fr. Roger Landry’s account reproduces a recollection attributed to Longo that explains the particular fear tormenting him. Longo wondered whether, because Christ’s priesthood was permanent, his purported Satanic priesthood might also be permanent. Despite repentance, he feared that he remained Satan’s “slave and property” and that damnation awaited him.[8]

That was Longo’s fear, rather than a Catholic teaching about the power of Satanic initiation. A parody of ordination does not become a sacrament or acquire the indelible character Catholicism attributes to Holy Orders. The relevance of the account lies in the anguish produced by his belief that his former commitment might be irreversible.

What He Found in Pompeii

In 1872 Longo went to the Valley of Pompeii to administer property belonging to Marianna De Fusco. The shrine biography describes him walking through the fields while troubled by a question that had already been tormenting him: how could he be saved after the experiences of his former life?[6]

The condition of the people around him added to his distress. Sullivan’s account reproduces Longo’s description of religious practice mixed with superstition and reliance on people offering charms and witchcraft. He also recounts an encounter in which a man, asked whether there was one God, remembered being told there were three and wondered whether one had since died or married.[7]

The anecdote is startling because it illustrates a failure of basic religious instruction. Longo understood the poverty of the valley as spiritual as well as material. From his Catholic perspective, people needed an intelligible account of the faith alongside practical help. He recognized aspects of the spiritual confusion he had experienced himself.

It was in this setting that his own despair became acute. Landry’s account describes Longo remembering his former Satanic consecration and coming close to suicide. Then he recalled Fr. Radente’s teaching about the promise traditionally associated with spreading devotion to the Rosary. He knelt and resolved to devote himself to that work.[8]

The shrine biography and Sullivan’s account also recall the ringing of the midday Angelus bells during this decisive experience.[6][7] Longo understood the moment as confirmation of his vocation. His past remained part of his story, but he had found a direction for the years ahead.

The Painting That Became a Shrine

Sister Maria Concetta de Litala presents the worn devotional painting to Bartolo Longo, Naples, circa 1875. The painting is shown with its later depiction of St. Catherine of Siena, who replaced the original figure of St. Rose.

Longo’s work in Pompeii began with religious instruction and the promotion of the Rosary. With Marianna’s help, he established a Rosary confraternity and worked to restore the neglected local church. The Bishop of Nola encouraged the construction of a larger church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.[6][10]

One of the most memorable details concerns the painting that became the shrine’s devotional center. Sister Maria Concetta de Litala, of the Monastery of the Rosary at Porta Medina, gave Longo a painting she had been keeping for Fr. Radente. He had purchased it cheaply from a secondhand dealer in Naples. It was in poor condition and of modest artistic quality, originally depicting Our Lady of the Rosary with St. Dominic and St. Rose. During a later restoration, at Longo’s request, the figure of St. Rose was changed to St. Catherine of Siena.[10]

Longo was initially dismayed by its appearance, according to the account reproduced in the National Catholic Register. Nevertheless, he accepted it and arranged for its restoration.[11] The shrine biography dates its arrival in Pompeii to November 13, 1875. Reports of miracles and growing pilgrimage followed, and the foundation stone of the new church was laid on May 8, 1876. The church was consecrated in 1891.[6][10]

There is something moving about that beginning. A damaged, unimpressive painting became the focus of a devotion that drew people from far beyond the valley. The shrine grew through the efforts of a man whose own life had once seemed badly damaged, and who had doubted whether restoration was possible.

Prayer and Works of Mercy

Longo’s mission extended well beyond building a church. He established a newspaper and helped develop institutions that served the growing community. The shrine biography records housing for workers, a small hospital and educational and charitable projects. His devotion found expression in the material conditions of people’s lives.[6]

The Dominican Order records an orphanage founded in 1887, an institute for the sons of prisoners in 1892 and another for their daughters in 1922.[12] These children were vulnerable to poverty and to the stigma attached to their parents’ imprisonment. Longo’s institutions offered care and education rather than treating family history as a verdict on a child’s future.

Marianna was essential to the undertaking. The shrine biography credits her financial resources and ideas with shaping decisions, making clear that she was a collaborator rather than merely a donor. They married in 1885, and Catholic biographies describe their marriage as one in which they remained celibate.[6][13] In 1906 the shrine was given to the Holy See.[14]

His social work and concern for peace also attracted attention beyond devotional circles. Journalist John L. Allen Jr. reports that Longo organized an international peace petition between 1896 and 1900 that gathered more than four million signatures. His name appears in the Nobel Peace Prize nomination archive, and Allen records his nomination for the 1902 prize.[14][15] Nomination is not an award, but it illustrates the public reach of the work undertaken by the former occultist.

What Was the Cause of His Suffering?

Some Catholic devotional biographies describe Longo’s earlier condition as demonic obsession and interpret his experiences within the language of spiritual warfare.[11] Catholic teaching does make a relevant distinction between forgiveness and the healing of consequences. Paragraph 1459 of the Catechism explains that absolution removes sin without remedying every disorder sin has caused. Reconciliation with God can therefore be real while a person still needs healing and restoration.[16] That explains why forgiveness from sin doesn’t always amount to the immediate disappearance of every wound.

Bartolo Longo continued promoting the Rosary until his death on October 5, 1926, at eighty-five. Pope John Paul II beatified him on October 26, 1980, and later discussed his devotion in Rosarium Virginis Mariae. Pope Leo XIV canonized him on October 19, 2025.[1][17]

I became curious about Bartolo Longo because of the extraordinary distance between his former life in the occult and his sainthood. His story resonated with me because the journey between them was neither simple nor painless. He returned to the Church and still suffered, yet he spent the years that followed praying, teaching and caring for people who needed him. His fear that the past had permanently claimed him did not have the final word. For those of us who have left the occult and are still struggling with its aftermath, St. Bartolo Longo is a reassuring example that healing can take time and freedom is still possible.

Notes and Sources

1. Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, “Beneath Mary’s Mantle: Bl. Bartolo Longo (1841–1926)”, for the October 5 feast and death date. Order of Preachers, “Former Satanic Priest Who Became a Lay Dominican Canonized a Saint”, October 19, 2025, for the canonization.
2. Order of Preachers, “Former Satanic Priest Who Became a Lay Dominican Canonized a Saint”, for séances, occult ritual and the reported parody of ordination.
3. Parrocchia Collegiata Santa Maria della Neve, Latiano, “San Bartolo Longo”, for his birthplace, education, anticlerical influences and the terminology used for his Spiritualist association. Order of Preachers, “Dominican Tertiary Bartolo Longo Will Be Canonised on 19 October 2025”, July 23, 2025.
4. Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, “Beneath Mary’s Mantle”, for depression, paranoia, anxiety, fasting and renewed despair after conversion. Parrocchia Collegiata Santa Maria della Neve, “San Bartolo Longo”, for digestive damage, nightmares and Vincenzo Pepe’s intervention. These are retrospective biographies, not contemporary medical records.
5. The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, “Blessed Bartolo Longo: From Satanism to Sanctity,” From the Housetops 57, no. 1 (2016), p. 4, as quoted in Wikipedia’s “Bartolo Longo,” reference 10. The claims concerning lifelong stomach damage and the “dark companion” are cited indirectly through that quotation; the original magazine page was not independently inspected. Rogier Janssen, “Meet Saint Bartolo Longo: A Satanist Freed by the Rosary”, also repeats the “dark companion” account. Repetition does not constitute independent verification of the reported presence or its cause. This note concerns Longo’s biography, not the subsequent comparison with Tibetan Buddhist practice.
6. Order of Preachers, “Dominican Tertiary Bartolo Longo Will Be Canonised”, reproducing the Pontifical Shrine of Pompeii’s biography, for Radente, Caterina Volpicelli, Marianna De Fusco, the 1872 crisis and the shrine’s development.
7. Br. Ezra Sullivan, O.P., “The Rosary: The Devil’s Defeat”, Catholic Exchange, October 26, 2007. Sullivan recounts the public renunciation with a Rosary, work with Franciscans, deficient religious instruction in Pompeii and the Angelus bells. He identifies Marian Shrines of Italy, edited by Br. Francis Mary Kalvelage (Academy of the Immaculate, 2000), as his source. These are transmitted biographical accounts rather than independently authenticated transcripts.
8. Fr. Roger J. Landry, “From Satanist to Saint”, October 31, 2008. Landry reproduces Longo’s reported fear that his Satanic consecration was permanent, his despair despite repentance and his resolution to spread the Rosary. This article is a secondary source for the recollection. The year 1871 is retained for his entry into the Dominican Third Order because the precise date differs across accounts.
9. Archdiocese of San Antonio/Catholic News Agency, “Saint Bartolo Longo Is an Example for Those With Mental Health Struggles, Priest Says”, published on the archdiocese’s website December 22, 2025. The article reports Fr. Joseph-Anthony Kress’s explicit discussion of continuing mental-health struggles and suicidal thoughts after conversion. December 22 identifies the publication date of this page, not necessarily the date of the interview.
10. A. Rum, “Our Lady of Pompeii”, from Dictionary of Mary (Catholic Book Publishing, 1985), reproduced by EWTN, for the confraternity, painting’s provenance, restoration, reported miracles and consecration. Pontifical Shrine of Pompeii, “Icona della Vergine”, for Sister Maria Concetta’s role, the arrival on November 13, 1875, public veneration beginning February 13, 1876, and the later alteration of the original St. Rose into St. Catherine of Siena.
11. Angelo Stagnaro, “Blessed Bartolo Longo, the Ex-Satanist Who Was Freed Through the Rosary”, National Catholic Register, December 12, 2016, for the Marian-medal version of the public renunciation, Longo’s reported reaction to the painting and the devotional terminology of demonic obsession. The article contains errors in other dates and in his age at death; those details have not been adopted here.
12. Order of Preachers, “Former Satanic Priest Who Became a Lay Dominican Canonized a Saint”, for the charitable institutions established in 1887, 1892 and 1922.
13. Meg Hunter-Kilmer, “Satanic Priest Turned Saint, Bartolo Longo Is Proof That No One Is Too Lost to Be Found”, Aleteia, October 5, 2017, for the reported celibate marriage. The shrine biography reproduced by the Dominican Order records their marriage in 1885; its precise day differs from the Wikipedia account, so only the year is used here.
14. John L. Allen Jr., “How a Satanist Became the ‘Man of Mary’”, National Catholic Reporter, August 26, 2006, for the 1906 transfer of the shrine, the international peace petition and the reported four million signatures.
15. Nobel Prize, “Nomination Archive: Bartolo Longo”. The archive records three nominations for the 1902 Peace Prize. Nomination should be distinguished from winning the prize or receiving an endorsement from the Nobel Committee.
16. Catechism of the Catholic Church, §1459, “The Acts of the Penitent”, on absolution and the continuing consequences of sin.
17. Order of Preachers, “Dominican Tertiary Bartolo Longo Will Be Canonised”, for his death and beatification. Pope John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, October 16, 2002, especially §§8 and 15, for his discussion of Longo.