Petition to Our Lady of The Holy Rosary of Pompeii.

Today on May 8th, is the Feast day of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii.

This story is amazingly beautiful about Blessed Bartolo Longa a lawyer that was a baptized Catholic yet fell away was influenced by two former priests at the University.

He became very anti-Catholic to the point of being a Satanic priest.

Yet, the power of a faithful priest, Dominican, and a holy professor he came back to the Faith with amazing love and zeal.

1871, He had become a 3rd Order Dominican, taking the name of Brother Rosario in honor of the Rosary.

“One day in the fields around Pompeii,” he wrote, “I recalled my former condition as a priest of Satan… I thought that perhaps as the priesthood of Christ is for eternity, so also the priesthood of Satan is for eternity. So, despite my repentance, I thought: I am still consecrated to Satan, and I am still his slave and property as he awaits me in Hell. 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: ‘One who propagates my Rosary shall be 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 propagating your Rosary.’” –Dominican Friars

He spent the whole rest of his life, beginning in Pompeii, propagating the Rosary and imitating the mysteries it contained.

He wrote books on the Rosary, composed novenas and prayer manuals. The former Satanist eventually became a friend of Pope Leo XIII, who had a great devotion to the Rosary. From Pompeii he also began the popular movement that led to the solemn dogmatic proclamation of the Assumption in 1950.

Perhaps his most lasting contribution of all will prove to be the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. It was from Blessed Bartolo’s writings that Pope John Paul II found not only the idea of mysteries covering the time of Jesus’ public ministry, but also what the individual mysteries should be and what all five as a whole should be called. When he proposed the new Mysteries of Light in his 2002 encyclical “The Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Pope John Paul II didn’t hesitate to show his admiration for this holy man whose conversion and subsequent holy life demonstrate that no matter how far away from the faith one is, there’s always hope. After referring to Blessed Bartolo’s insights throughout his Rosary encyclical, Pope John Paul II concluded by quoting the prayer of the man he beatified in 1980. – Dominican Friars

Two times a year, one prays this petition to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii, today, May 8th and 1st Sunday in October. — Click on the pray to print.