Our Lady of Pompeii

Devotions

The Rosary shrine a former practitioner of occult rites built near the ruins of Pompeii after his own return to the Catholic faith.

Our Lady of Pompeii is a Marian devotion centered on a nineteenth-century painting of Our Lady of the Rosary enshrined at Pompeii, Italy, through the efforts of Bartolo Longo, a lawyer who had once taken part in occult and Satanic practices before returning to the Catholic faith and devoting his life to spreading the Rosary. Pope Leo XIV canonized Longo a saint on October 19, 2025, and the shrine he founded remains one of the world’s most visited centers of Rosary devotion.

Quick Facts

Category: Marian Apparitions and Shrines — Major International Devotions
Origin: A Rosary shrine built at Pompeii, Italy, around a painting acquired in 1875 by Bartolo Longo, later canonized a saint
Feast: May 8 (the Supplication to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii; also observed the first Sunday of October)
Church status: An ecclesially recognized Marian shrine and Rosary devotion, founded by a canonized saint and consecrated as a pontifical basilica
Private revelation: Not necessary to the devotion as a matter of faith; the shrine rests on a founder’s conversion and a venerated painting, not a reported apparition

What Is This Devotion?

Devotion to Our Lady of Pompeii centers on a specific painting of Our Lady of the Rosary, flanked by St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena, venerated at a shrine built near the ancient ruins of Pompeii, Italy. Unlike many Marian devotions, its origin lies not in a reported vision but in one man’s dramatic return to the Catholic faith: Bartolo Longo, a lawyer who had once taken part in occult and Satanic practices before his conversion, who built the shrine specifically to promote the Rosary as a path back to God, the same path he credited with saving his own soul.

Origin and History

Bartolo Longo was born in 1841 in southern Italy and, as a university student in Naples, became involved in spiritism and reportedly presided at rites invoking Satan before a Dominican priest, Fr. Alberto Radente, helped guide him back to the Catholic faith. Settled near the excavated ruins of Pompeii to manage a widow’s estate in the early 1870s, Longo became convinced that the region, materially and spiritually impoverished, needed a concrete center of prayer, and he began teaching the Rosary to local children and families. In 1875, Fr. Radente gave him a damaged, secondhand painting of Our Lady of the Rosary, purchased cheaply from a Naples junk shop; Longo had it restored and enshrined it in a small country church, and pilgrims and reported favors soon multiplied faster than the modest building could hold.

Longo built a much larger sanctuary on the same site, completed in 1883 and consecrated in 1891, funding it in part through the worldwide spread of a specific prayer he composed, the Supplication to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, prayed twice yearly on May 8 and the first Sunday of October. He also founded charitable institutions for the children of prisoners and other vulnerable groups, seeing concrete charity as inseparable from Marian devotion. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1980, and on October 19, 2025, Pope Leo XIV canonized him a saint together with six others — a remarkable outcome for a man who had once presided at rites dedicated to Satan, and one the Church has repeatedly held up as a sign of the Rosary’s power to draw even the most unlikely soul back to conversion.

Catholic Theology

The devotion Longo built expresses a straightforward but often-repeated Catholic conviction: that the Rosary, patient and repetitive as it seems, can be a genuinely transformative path of conversion, not merely a private comfort. His own life is the clearest statement of the shrine’s theology — a man who had turned toward the demonic finding his way back to Christ specifically through Marian prayer — and the shrine’s continuing charitable works for children in need reflect his conviction that authentic devotion to Mary must issue in real, practical charity.

How to Practice It

Pray the Rosary regularly, the devotion at the heart of Bartolo Longo’s own conversion and the shrine he built.
Pray the Supplication to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii on May 8 or the first Sunday of October, when it is prayed simultaneously by Catholics worldwide.
Make a pilgrimage to the Pontifical Shrine of the Rosary at Pompeii, Italy, if able.
Support charitable work for children in difficult circumstances, following the example St. Bartolo Longo set through the institutions he founded alongside the shrine.

Associated Prayers

When It’s Observed

May 8 and the first Sunday of October are the shrine’s principal observances, centered on the Supplication prayer; neither date is on the General Roman Calendar for the universal Church, though the shrine’s Rosary devotion connects naturally to October, traditionally kept as the Month of the Rosary.

Church Status

Our Lady of Pompeii is a well-documented modern Marian devotion, resting on a specific painting whose history is thoroughly recorded and a founder whose life the Church has now examined twice over, first in beatifying him in 1980 and then in canonizing him in 2025. The shrine holds the rank of Pontifical Basilica, and its charitable and devotional work continues today under the Dominican family with which St. Bartolo Longo was affiliated as a lay tertiary.

Common Misconceptions

“St. Bartolo Longo reported seeing an apparition of Mary, like the visionaries of Lourdes or Fatima.”

He did not. Our Lady of Pompeii’s origin is a conversion story and a venerated painting, not a reported vision; Longo never claimed that Mary appeared to him. His significance lies instead in his own dramatic turn from occult practice back to the Catholic faith, and in the shrine and charitable works he built afterward to help others make the same journey through the Rosary.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Bartolo Longo a saint?

Yes. Pope Leo XIV canonized him on October 19, 2025, decades after Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1980. He is now properly called Saint Bartolo Longo.

What did Bartolo Longo do before his conversion?

As a young law student in Naples, he became involved in spiritism and reportedly presided at rites invoking Satan, a period of his life he later described with real anguish, before a Dominican priest helped guide him back to the Catholic faith.

What is the Supplication to Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii?

A prayer Bartolo Longo composed, asking Mary’s intercession under this title, traditionally recited by Catholics around the world at the same hour twice a year, on May 8 and the first Sunday of October.

Why is the shrine located at Pompeii specifically?

Longo settled near the excavated ruins of ancient Pompeii in the early 1870s to manage a local estate, and, moved by the material and spiritual poverty he found in the surrounding region, chose to build his Rosary shrine there rather than anywhere with a direct connection to the ancient city itself.