Blessed Bartolo Longo, Apostle of the Rosary

October 5th is the liturgical memorial of Blessed Bartolo Longo, founder of the Sanctuary of the Madonna of the Rosary of Pompei. Pope John Paul II beatified the Italian layman in 1980, calling him the man of the Madonna. On October 7, 2003, Pope John Paul went in pilgrimage to Pompei. There he recited the Rosary and prayed Blessed Longo’s touching “supplication” to the Madonna of the Rosary. The pilgrimage to Pompeii marked the close of Pope John Paul II’s Year of the Rosary.
“What actually is the Rosary? A compendium of the Gospel. It brings us back again and again to the most important scenes of Christ’s life, almost as if to let us “breathe” his mystery. The Rosary is the privileged path to contemplation. It is, so to speak, Mary’s way. Is there anyone who knows and loves Christ better than she?
Bl. Bartolo Longo, Apostle of the Rosary, was convinced of this; he paid special attention to the contemplative and Christological character of the Rosary. Thanks to this Blessed, Pompei has become an international centre for the spirituality of the Rosary.
I wanted my pilgrimage to have the meaning of a plea for peace. We have meditated upon the Mysteries of Light as if to turn the beam of Christ’s light on the conflicts, tensions and dramas of the five Continents. In my Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, I explained why the Rosary is a prayer that by its very nature is oriented to peace. This is not only because it disposes us to pray for peace, strengthened by the intercession of Mary, but also because it enables us to assimilate Jesus’ plan of peace, together with his mystery.
At the same time, with the tranquil rhythm of the repetition of the Hail Mary the Rosary calms our spirit and opens it to saving grace. Bl. Bartolo Longo had a prophetic intuition when he chose to add to the church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary this facade as a monument to peace. So it was that the cause of peace came to be part of what the Rosary itself proposes. It is an intuition whose timeliness does not escape us at the beginning of this millennium, already so battered by the winds of war and streaked with blood in so many parts of the world.”
Pope John Paul II
October 7, 2003