Pompeii has more to offer than dusty ruins filled with plaster casts
of people, and one unfortunate puppy, frozen in time.
It is also,
coincidently, home to the only church in Christendom built by an
ex-Satanist.
It’s the same old story: boy from a religious family
goes away to university, falls in with a bunch of New Age Satanists,
becomes a satanic high priest, thinks better of his decision and
ultimately reverts to the Church; it’s the basic
satanic-rags-to-saintly-riches story.
I didn’t believe this story
when I first learned about Blessed Bartolo Longo either. Having grown up
the son of Italian immigrants, I was regaled with all of the lurid
stories of El Barto’s excesses, debauchery and general dissoluteness. I
came to Pompeii not just for the ruins but also to see if the stories
were true.
Bartolo Longo was born on February 10 1841 to a wealthy
family in the small town of Latiano, near Brindisi in southern Italy.
His parents, Dr Bartolomeo Longo and Antonina Luparelli, were devout
Catholics who prayed the rosary together daily.
When Longo’s
mother died in 1851, he slowly drifted away from his Catholic faith. He
was left to his own devices when he studied law at the University of
Naples and became involved with a New Age pagan group which ultimately
“ordained” him a satanist priest. He participated in séances,
fortune-telling and the de rigueur orgies.
Unsatisfied with merely
practising his new pagan religion, he felt it important to publicly
ridicule Christianity and did everything within his power to subvert
Catholic influence. He even convinced many other Catholics to leave the
Church and participate in occult rites.
But none of these
activities brought him joy. In fact, his life was marked by extreme
depression, paranoia, confusion and nervousness. He even began to show
signs of demonic obsession, as opposed to demonic possession, which
included being inflicted by diabolical visions and continually declining
poor health. He ultimately experienced a mental breakdown.
In his
despair, he heard the voice of his deceased father urging him to
“Return to God! Return to God!”
In fear and desperation, Longo turned to
Professor Vincenzo Pepe, a friend from his home town, for guidance.
Vincenzo convinced Longo to abandon Satan and introduced him to the
Dominican priest, Fr Alberto Radente. Fr Radente heard his Confession
and helped him to further reclaim his life.
One evening, as he
walked near-chapel at Pompeii, Bartolo 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 ear of the voice of Friar Alberto repeating the words of the
Blessed Virgin Mary: ‘If you seek salvation, promulgate the rosary. This
is Mary’s own promise.’ These words illumined my soul. I went on my
knees. ‘If it is true… I will not leave this valley until I have
propagated your rosary.’”
To prove his new-found commitment to
Christ and His Church Bartolo even attended a séance. In the midst of
it, he stood and raised a medal of the Blessed Virgin Mother and cried
out: “I renounce spiritism because it is nothing but a maze of error and
falsehood.”
On March 25 1871, as part of his self-imposed
penance, Longo became a Third Order Dominican, taking the name Brother
Rosario in honour of the rosary. He joined a charitable group in Pompeii
and worked alongside Countess Mariana di Fusco, a wealthy local widow
whom he married a year later on Pope Leo XIII’s recommendation.
The
happy couple decided to start a confraternity of the rosary. To serve
as a spiritual focus for this group, Bartolo needed a painting of the
Blessed Virgin. Sister Maria Concetta de Litala of the Monastery of the
Rosary at Porta Medina offered him one that she got at a Neapolitan junk
shop. She paid only 3.40 lire – a tiny, insignificant sum even at the
time.
The painting portrayed Our Lady of the Rosary with St
Dominic and St Catherine of Siena.
Though it was of modest artistic
accomplishment and in very poor condition, it served Bartolo’s purpose.
He described it in his journal: “Not only was it worm-eaten, but the
face of the Madonna was that of a coarse, rough country-woman … a piece
of canvas was missing just above her head … her mantle was cracked.
Nothing need be said of the hideousness of the other figures. St Dominic
looked like a street idiot. To Our Lady’s left was a St Rose. This I
had changed later into a St Catherine of Siena … I hesitated whether to
refuse the gift or to accept … I took it.”
In addition, the
sorcerer turned born-again Catholic restored a ramshackle church in
October 1873 and then sponsored a feast in honour of Our Lady of the
rosary.
He installed the repaired painting in this very church. Within
hours of its installation miracles began to be reported and people came
to the church in droves. Seeing the devotion of the pilgrims, the Bishop
of Nola encouraged Bartolo to construct a larger church.
He approached
architect Giovanni Rispoli to build it, making the following appeal: “In
this place selected for its prodigies, we wish to leave to present and
future generations a monument to the Queen of Victories that will be
less unworthy of her greatness but more worthy of our faith and love.”
Work
on the larger building began on May 8 1876 and was consecrated in May
1891 by Cardinal La Valetta who represented Pope Leo XIII. In 1906, he
and his wife donated the Pompeii shrine to the Holy See but this didn’t
diminish his evangelistic zeal.
Bartolo continued promoting the rosary
until his death in1926, at the age of 75. To spread devotion to the
rosary and to the Blessed Virgin Mary Bartolo would evangelise young
people at parties and in local cafes, explaining the dangers of
occultism.
He would witness continually as to the glories of Christ, the
munificence of His mother and the beauty of the Catholic Faith.
In
1939 the church was enlarged and re-consecrated as a basilica and
officially renamed the Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of
Pompeii.
It soon became a focus of pilgrimages for more than a century
as most Catholics and non-Catholics alike found a church built by a
reformed ex-Satanist to be devilishly irresistible.
Bartolo had
died a saintly death and his Cause for canonisation was almost
immediately called for. He was beatified by John Paul II on October 26
1980 who called him the “Apostle of the Rosary”.
More than 30,000 people
attended the ceremony, and 50,000 pilgrims attended Pope Benedict’s
historic pastoral visit to the shrine on October 19 2008.
He consecrated
the world, entrusting it to Mary’s hands, offering the Blessed Virgin a
golden rose.
In his homily, Benedict XVI likened Bartolo Longo to St
Paul of Tarsus, who also initially persecuted the Church, described
Bartolo as being “militantly anticlerical and engaging in spiritualist
and superstitious practices”.
He continued by saying: “Wherever
God comes in this desert, flowers bloom. Even Blessed Bartolo Longo,
with his personal conversion, bears witness to this spiritual power that
transforms man from within and makes him capable of doing great things
according to God’s designs. This city which he re-founded, is thus a
historical demonstration of how God transforms the world: filling man’s
heart with charity.”
It’s not easy to get lost in Pompeii but I
somehow managed to do exactly that. I finally spied the famous bronze
cross that adorns the Basilica’s campanile.
Apparently I am not the only
person in the Sarno Valley to use it to orient myself.
Technically
speaking, every Christian uses the cross to orient himself so I wasn’t
in the least bit ashamed for having to do so.
The white surface of
the domed basilica and its lateral chapels both strike and comfort the
visitor.
The façade is only a little more than a century old, having
been re-pointed by the architect Rispoli in 1901.
As I passed the long
passageways adjacent to the basilica, I noted that this is where Bartolo
and his wife would stand to hand out food to the poor who would gather
daily.
Upon entering the church one is struck not by its silence
but rather the pervasive hushed susurration of pilgrims who stand in awe
at the church’s beauty and God’s presence.
The walls are replete with
frescos, marble ornaments, mosaics, paintings and the ever-present
votives.
These small silver or tin plaques in the shape of heads, hands,
legs and eyes hang everywhere as tokens of thanksgiving for Mary’s
received protection and prayers.
The neoclassical Basilica of Our
Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii is decorated in the stereotypically
exaggerated, over-the-top, pietistic art of the Italian peasantry that
makes you smile and secretly wish you were Italian.
It is, for good or
bad, the art one associates with ancient churches and an even older
faith.
Stepping into this basilica reconnects one with 2,000 years of
Christ’s presence in the world and in our hearts.
I asked as to
the whereabouts of Blessed Bartolo and soon found myself face to
beatified face with the Apostle of the Rosary himself.
Like every other
pilgrim standing next to me, I realised that this former, self-professed
enemy of the Church rests peacefully in a tomb in its bosom of the very
church he had hoped to destroy. More delicious and blessed irony one
can hardly imagine.
As I looked at the oversized painting of Our
Lady of Pompeii hanging over the church’s altar, I recalled St
Maximilian Kolbe’s poignant words: “If anyone does not wish to have Mary
Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother.”
One
can’t but be moved when seeing this painting of him and recall the
pain, horror and revulsion that this satanist-turned-saint experienced
when he was confronted by his own sins.
Every student knows what
happened to the city of Pompeii on August 24 79 AD. But most people
don’t realise that the “new” Pompeii rose from the destroyed city’s
ashes 1,796 years later because of Our Lady of the Rosary and her
devotee.
In his The History of the Shrine of Pompeii Bartolo wrote:
“Next to a land of dead appeared, quite suddenly, a land of resurrection
and life: next to a shattered amphitheatre soiled with blood, there is a
living Temple of faith and love, a sacred Temple to the Virgin Mary;
from a town buried in the filth of gentilism, arises a town full of
life, drawing its origins from a new civilization brought by
Christianity: the New Pompeii!… It is the new civilisation that openly
appears beside the old; the new art next to the old; Christianity full
of life in juxtaposition to long-surpassed paganism.”
The newly
constructed basilica attracted new families, a railway station, postal
and telegraph services, the police, roads, water, electricity, hotels,
restaurants and shops.
About three million pilgrims come to the basilica
every year, thus bringing to life the long-dead city of Pompeii.
Thus,
the resurrection and salvation of Pompeii is now eternally linked with
the resurrection and salvation of Blessed Bartolo Longo; the prodigal
son returned home.
In God, all things are possible.
Thankfully.