Located near the ancient Roman ruins of Pompeii, the modern city of Pompei was founded after Bartolo Longo built the Marian sanctuary.
‘One hundred and fifty years ago, as he laid the cornerstone of this Shrine—on the very spot where the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD had buried the vestiges of a great civilisation under ash, preserving them for centuries—St Bartolo Longo, together with his wife, Countess Marianna Farnararo De Fusco, laid the foundations not only of a church but of an entire Marian city,’ Pope Leo said.
St Bartolo was able to see … the face of Christ in everyone.
In addition to the basilica, Bartolo Longo built up the extensive charity network around the shrine, welcoming orphans and the children of prisoners, and earning two nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize in the early 1900s.
‘When St Bartolo first arrived in the valley of Pompeii, he found a land plagued by great poverty, inhabited by a few very poor farmers, and ravaged by malaria and bandits. He was able to see, however, the face of Christ in everyone: in the young and the old, and especially in the orphans and the children of prisoners, to whom he made the beating of God’s heart felt through his tenderness,’ the Pope said in a meeting with charity volunteers affiliated with the shrine before the Mass.
Before the Eucharistic celebration, Pope Leo listened to testimonies from those aided by the shrine’s ongoing charitable works, including a mother named Serena, who told the Pope, ‘When I arrived, I felt like a failure: a mother who hadn’t been able to protect herself and her children from an abusive relationship. But then I began to understand that falling to the ground doesn’t necessarily mean staying there.’
Today the Pompei shrine dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary draws approximately 3 million pilgrims annually. Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis all made pilgrimages to the shrine, which was named a basilica by Pope Leo XIII in 1901.