POPE LEO XIV elevated a Dominican layman to sainthood during a canonization Mass on Sunday, Oct. 19, at St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican.
St. Bartolo Longo, a member of the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic, was proclaimed a saint, along with six other blesseds, during the ceremony.
In his homily, Leo said the seven new saints became “lamps” who spread the light of Christ by being a witness of God’s grace, and kept the “lamp of faith burning.”
“He [Christ] is the humble one who calls the arrogant to conversion, the just one who makes us just. We see all this in the lives of the new Saints: they are not heroes or champions of some ideal, but authentic men and women,” the pope said.
Longo was born on Feb. 10, 1841, in Latiano, Italy, and became a lawyer.
He grew up in a devout Catholic household, but later became an atheist, then a Satanist, and was previously “ordained” as a Satanic priest.
In 1871, He renounced his past and returned to the Church through the prayers of his family, friends, professors, and Fr. Alberto Radente, a Dominican.
He joined the Dominican Third Order, took the name “Rosario,” and promoted the rosary and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
He advocated for social justice and founded schools, charities and orphanages.
The Italian saint died on Oct. 5, 1926, and was beatified by St. Pope John Paul II in 1980.
Along with Longo, six other saints were canonized: St. Ignatius Maloyan, an Armenian Catholic archbishop, St. Peter To Rot, a lay catechist and the first saint from Papua New Guinea, and St. Jose Gregorio Hernandez, a Venezuelan layman, scientist and physician.
They are joined by religious women: St. Maria Troncatti, an Italian Salesian nun, St. Carmen Elena Martinez, head of the Servants of Jesus congregation and Venezuela’s first female saint, and St. Vicenza Maria Poloni, an Italian nun who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona.
“May their intercession assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness,” Leo said.
The canonizations of the seven saints were previously approved by the late Pope Francis. With reports from Alexandra Gabrielle C. Mansineros
