From: trudie.Miller@cox.net   
      
   October 5th - Bl. Bartolo Longo   
      
   Bartolo Longo was born on February 11, 1841 in Latiana, Italy. His father   
   was a well-to-do physician and man of culture. His mother was a devout woman   
   who always saw to it that her children prayed the family rosary every night.   
   Bartolo derived his great love of Mary from her. As a young boy, Bartolo was   
   lively, intelligent and at times a mischievous lad. He loved music, played   
   the piano and flute and was the conductor of the school band.   
      
   During the 19th century, Italian universities became hotbeds of resistance.   
   A wave of anti-clericalism swept through the universities. Bartolo studied   
   law and received his law degree in 1864 at the age of 23. He graduated from   
   the University of Naples, the alma mater of St. Thomas Aquinas and St.   
   Alphonsus Liguori.   
      
   During his studies in Naples, Bartolo's faith weakened, as he came under the   
   influence of friends who were involved in the occult. He attended seances   
   and eventually was ordained a priest in a Satanic cult. He took on such   
   severe fasts, that he endangered his health. He became depressed and nervous   
   and seemed to hear the voice of his dead father: "Return to God! Return to   
   God!"   
      
   During this time, he publicly derided the Church, priests and anything   
   connected with the Faith. The Satanic sect that he belonged to, ridiculed   
   priests, bishops, and the rites of the Catholic Church. The experiences that   
   Bartolo underwent in this sect were so horrible that Bartolo went into a   
   state of insanity for a short period of time. His family prayed hard and   
   long for Bartolo.   
      
   Our Lady chose a good friend of the young lawyer to help redirect his   
   shattered life. His name was Professor Vincente Pepe, who taught near   
   Naples. Bartolo would talk to him about his activities in the Satanic cult.   
   Vincente was disgusted at what he heard and his angry reproach stung   
   Bartolo. The young lawyer came to admit that he was mentally confused. He   
   very much needed support of God-loving people. Vincente introduced Bartolo   
   to a learned Dominican priest, one trained in the philosophy and theology of   
   St. Thomas Aquinas. His name was Fr. Alberto Radente, O.P., who was chosen   
   by Mary to be the friend, confessor and spiritual director of the young   
   lawyer. The Dominican helped Bartolo withdraw from the Satanic cult. He gave   
   the lawyer, a comprehensive review of theology and prepared him for the   
   reception of the sacraments. This great Dominican priest prayed earnestly   
   and even fasted for Bartolo Longo.   
      
   Fr. Radente professed him into the Third Order of St. Dominic on March 25,   
   1871, after explaining to him the history of the Order, founded by St.   
   Dominic and confirmed by Pope Honorius III in 1216. The Pope stated at this   
   time that Dominicans would be "Champions of the Faith and True Lights of the   
   world." This new lay Dominican lawyer was now bent on repairing his past. He   
   visited a seance for the last time, holding a medal of Mary and cried out:   
   "I renounce spiritism because it is nothing but a maze of error and   
   falsehood." He then went to student parties and cafes denouncing spiritism   
   and proclaiming his faith in Christ and the Church. Fr. Radente said to him:   
   "If you are looking for salvation, propagate the Rosary. It is the promise   
   of Mary. He who propagates the Rosary shall be saved." This young lay   
   Dominican lawyer was destined by God to become one of the greatest modern   
   apostles of the Rosary. In prayer, Bartolo said to Mary: "I shall not depart   
   from this earth without first displaying before you, the triumph of your   
   Rosary."   
      
   Bartolo went to the Valley of Pompeii in 1872, which was to be his area of   
   work. He was determined to evangelize the people of Pompeii by means of the   
   Rosary as his spiritual Father, St. Dominic did in southern France in the   
   early 13th century. There is the Dominican tradition that in 1208, in the   
   Chapel of Notre Dame in Prouille, France, Mary appeared to St. Dominic and   
   said: "Wonder not that until now you have obtained so little fruit by your   
   labors; you have spent them on barren soil not yet watered with the dew of   
   divine grace. When God willed to renew the face of the earth, He began by   
   sending down on it the fertilizing rain of the Angelic Salutation.   
   Therefore, preach my psalter, composed of 15O Angelic Salutations and 15 Our   
   Fathers, and you will obtain an abundant harvest of souls." Pope Leo XIII   
   confirmed this tradition over and over. Since the days of St. Dominic, the   
   Rosary has been the special charism of the Dominican Order. The Catholic   
   Church looks to the Dominicans as official promoters of the Rosary. Bartolo   
   Longo was destined to be a true light to the world, a true Dominican in the   
   spirit of St. Dominic.   
      
   At the age of 44, Bartolo married Marianna de Fusco on April 7, 1885. They   
   were married in the private oratory of the vicar general of the Archdiocese   
   of Naples. Bartolo's dear friend, Pope Leo III, encouraged the couple to get   
   married.   
      
   Bartolo was an avid writer. His words were: "O God! In one hand, you placed   
   the Rosary, in the other, a pen." Of the Rosary he wrote:   
      
   "The entire Rosary has the beauty of reproducing the theological thoughts   
   concerning Mary, they are reproduced in the entire dialectic of truth and   
   deduction. Marian theology and the Rosary are two poems that are united into   
   one, two hymns forming one hymn, two magnificent temples, two cathedrals of   
   thought and piety, that come together as one... Here in the Rosary, piety   
   speaks in the language of theologians. Here meditation rises to the heights   
   attained by scholars. Here prayer dwells where the scholars are brought to a   
   halt. Marian theology and the Rosary are therefore similar to two temples   
   having at the same height their pinnacles and spires. The people of God in   
   the Church have found the Rosary, its Book of Psalms. The clergy have the   
   Divine Office, the people have the Rosary. Like The Divine Comedy, the   
   Rosary is a trilogy: it recall the joys, sorrows, and triumphs of Jesus and   
   in perfect symmetry, for each part it has five chants, and each chant in   
   turn is an episode. The Rosary could very well be called the poem of human   
   redemption. The Rosary is a poem that takes its lively but simplistic hues   
   from the pure palette of the Gospel; while at the same time it draws its   
   logical ties, its harmonious responses, its entire intimate dialectic from   
   the highest theology."   
      
   Bartolo Longo ended his long and fruitful life on October 5, 1926, at the   
   age of 85. His last words were "My only desire is to see Mary, who has saved   
   me and who will save me from the clutches of Satan." In his last will and   
   testament he declared: "I wish to die a true Dominican tertiary in the arms   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)