Penitent and friend of the Redemptorists Ribera, Leone, and Losito (1870–1917)
If God had already traced the road for him, He chose to make use of “living saints” so that Bartolo Longo might change. This is the value of a testimony that works miracles, seen in the example of the Redemptorist mystics Ribera, Leone, and Losito.
Bartolo Longo is internationally synonymous with the Marian Shrine of Pompeii and its numerous works of charity, the apostle of the Rosary and founder, an emblematic figure whose life bears witness to a profound spiritual and social transformation. This authentic witness of hope will be proclaimed a saint by Pope Leo XIV on October 19, 2025, in the heart of the Jubilee Year of Hope! A piece of news that strikes, astonishes, and moves us—an event of extraordinary importance for the Church. Already Pope Francis, even while hospitalized at the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, had approved the favourable votes of the members of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints for the canonization of Blessed Bartolo Longo (Latiano, Brindisi, 1841 – Pompeii, 1926).
We can affirm that in Longo’s holiness there is a very significant chapter of the Redemptorist Congregation’s history. While the whole community and the faithful devoted to the Shrine of Pompeii rejoice, no less should be the joy of the Redemptorist Congregation, given the relationship between the founder-lawyer and, in particular, three significant Redemptorist figures who worked in the southern Church of Campania and Apulia in the 19th century—each of them venerable, three stars in the Redemptorist firmament. Bartolo Longo brings to the most solemn altars those “invisible” people through whom God spoke to him again: craftsmen of the Word, religious who, with their meticulous, laborious, and creative witness, opened him to new horizons—earthly angels who guided him in seeking God’s will.
We recall the Neapolitan hermit Fr. Emanuele M. Ribera (1811–1874), followed by the mystic tempered by suffering from Angri, Fr. Giuseppe M. Leone (1829–1902), and, after him, the friend and advisor of St. Pius X, Fr. Antonio M. Losito (1838–1917)—three names and faces that almost naturally take second place to Bartolo Longo’s figure, but that fully express the strong and decisive value of the copiosa apud eum redemptio. The Shrine of Pompeii, now a place of graces received, had its precedent in the “grace” that Bartolo Longo received from God through them.
The future saint, driven by a search for the truth of the Absolute, seems to have found in the sons of St. Alphonsus extraordinary representatives of holiness and popular pastoral ministry in the Neapolitan Church. Each had his own particular image, and to each Bartolo Longo felt indebted for the influence they exercised on his personality during three distinct periods of his life and spiritual growth.
First period: Immediately after his conversion came Fr. Emanuele M. Ribera (1846–1874), a learned man, great spiritual director, and apostle of ascetical-mystical publications in Naples. Longo, who met him after his conversion and visited him in a familiar way, considered him “the great Saint of our times” and admired him for “the austerity of his life… the activity of his ministry… the sweetness and humility reflected in his welcome… his continual union with God and his spirit of prayer.” Through him, Longo felt that God was guiding his life according to the plans of Providence.
In his testimony during the process for Fr. Ribera, Longo outlined the venerable’s personality. Fr. Ribera’s influence was decisive for Longo’s definitive conversion, vocational choices (teaching on vocation and the choice of one’s state in life—Marian devotion and spirituality, Mariological doctrine), spiritual life (ascetical and penitential teaching), reading habits (devotion to the Passion of the Lord), and spirituality (mission in the world as Christian service).
Second period: Enter Fr. Giuseppe M. Leone (1885–1902), an exemplary witness of openness to grace. Despite fragile health, he spared no effort in priestly ministry. He rekindled hope among the faithful by presenting to them the redemptive value of Christ’s Blood. A prominent figure in late 19th-century Naples, he was a point of reference for founders of charitable works and new religious families—such as St. Alfonso M. Fusco, founder of the Sisters of St. John the Baptist; St. Caterina Volpicelli, founder of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart; the future saint Bartolo Longo and his wife. For eighteen years, he was their moderator and spiritual guide.
From the beginning of his stay in Angri (1885–1902) until his death, Fr. Leone supported Bartolo Longo and Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco in creating the great and prodigious work of Pompeii. With his counsel, he gave the initiatives in the Valley of Pompeii genuine Christian wisdom, the solidity of holy living, and spiritual fruitfulness. He tirelessly collaborated with Longo in the work’s outreach to the marginalized (against material and moral slavery, the prison system, etc.). Together they directed the Daughters of the Rosary, for whom he wrote the first Rule.
He also became a herald of the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption, encouraging Longo to promote it. He supported the Longo–De Fusco couple in difficulties tied to the charitable works connected to the Shrine of Pompeii, and he worked for them to be aggregated among the Redemptorist Oblates in 1894. On the same day (August 2, 1902) when Longo wrote a letter of thanks to the Superior General, Fr. Mattia Raus (1829–1917), for granting them “brotherhood in the Congregation, being bound by holy gratitude for the teachings and advice received from the Fathers,” he went to Angri to confess to Fr. Leone, who was on his deathbed. They met once more on the 6th, before the father passed away peacefully.
At the Informative Process for Fr. Leone, Bartolo Longo testified to the influence that the venerable, with his teaching and personal example, had on him. Fr. Leone was declared venerable by Pope Francis on December 18, 2024, the 140th anniversary of his first meeting with the future saint (1884–2024).
Third Period: The relationship between Bartolo Longo and the Redemptorists in the third period came through Fr. Antonio M. Losito (1902–1917). The reason that led the Commendatore to seek out Fr. Losito was the latter’s reputation for holiness. The spiritual work Fr. Losito offered Longo in particularly difficult moments was to inspire him with “purely supernatural motives of faith and charity” for the future of the educational institutes he had founded “in unity of purpose” with the Shrine. While the specific field of “his collaboration was identified with the world of the spirit and conscience” of the future saint, it was often not without “external repercussions.”
In this way, the disciple of the Patron of Moralists and Confessors became the “consultant par excellence for the interior life” of the Longo–De Fusco couple. Fr. Losito appears as God’s counsellor and oracle during the Blessed’s “agonies,” his “inner struggles,” his anguish of conscience, his abandonment, spiritual purification, and kenosis. It was largely to him that Bartolo Longo owed the influence of the doctrine and example of St. Alphonsus in similar circumstances. Indeed, it was Fr. Losito who instilled in him the spirit of obedience to the Pope.
For this purpose, Losito was able to rely on the prestige he enjoyed with St. Pius X, who—between 1905 and 1914—received him many times in private audience. Longo himself confirms: “In one of our audiences, Pius X deigned to tell us that he had had clear proof of the extraordinary gifts of this servant of God.” Losito stood by him during the most troubled years of Bartolo Longo’s relationship with the Holy See. The darkest period for him stretched from December 1904 to January 1906—“those very sad fourteen months.” Pius X and his collaborators subjected the two founders to a most severe trial. In the end, Losito facilitated mediation between the Holy See and Lawyer Longo for the future governance of the Works in the Valley of Pompeii.
From the very beginning of his Work, Longo had received requests to take in girls who were the daughters of imprisoned mothers or fathers. This brought the Commendatore back in mind to an earlier project: he thought of creating an institute for the true prevention and social redemption of prisoners’ daughters. It was Fr. Losito who used the influence he enjoyed with Pius X to smooth the path for the “last vow of the heart” of the Commendatore. On June 22, 1910, Losito was in Rome and was received in audience by Pius X, seizing the opportunity to plead for the new Work. To the Pope, he explained the true concept of the Work, aimed directly at preventing sin. The Pope agreed and blessed the new Work.
However, a harsh letter from the cardinal commission chilled the enthusiasm and halted any initiative. The Commendatore, though saddened and disturbed, obeyed. Fr. Losito continued to support him through every difficulty, insisting that he not abandon his generous plan, and repeated to him: “Whoever contributes to this Work will have written his name in Heaven, for it not only saves souls… but directly helps to reduce sins and offenses against God.”
After thirty years, the Lawyer Longo’s cry was finally heard: on October 15, 1922, the first stone of the new Institute was laid. Regarding the work of his confessor for his benefit and for that of the works of Pompeii, the future saint wrote upon Fr. Losito’s death:
“We weep for him as the angel given to us by Providence to guide our spirit over the course of the last fifteen years and in very difficult times […] He had to guide us through very stormy periods. He was our light, our strength. Free from all harsh impositions, from any severe word, he had a manner […] that descended into our soul like a wave of sweetness. He comforted us with thoughts of the Madonna, who had deigned to choose us in the world as a humble instrument of her mercies; in the storms he pointed out to us our safe harbour—the great harbour of God’s Providence. And we, after revealing to him with the simplicity of a child our entire spirit, its anxieties, its disturbances, its sorrows, would leave his small cell consoled and moved, saying to ourselves: he is a saint who forgives us, a saint who blesses us!”
Through the ministry of the three Venerables—Ribera, Leone, and Losito—the Redemptorist charism was thus placed at the service of the Church’s work in Pompeii. Further involvement of the Redemptorists after the founder’s death († 1926) is evident in their presence at the Shrine of Pompeii for the ministry of reconciliation (since 1934) and in their continuous role as postulators of his cause, contributing to the spread of his reputation for holiness and the collection of testimonies for the canonization process.
Fr. Mario Porro
Vice-Postulator
