Bartolo Longo was one of seven people to be officially deemed a saint in the Catholic Church by Pope Leo XIV, but his story includes a twisted deal with the devil
One of the Catholic Church’s newest saints made a deal with Satan himself for his soul. However, the Pope has since opted to forgive him and make him a figurehead within the church.
At a ceremony before thousands of people at the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV canonised seven people as saints within the church. One of these includes a priest that went on to venture into Satanism himself.
Pope Leo said he would declare Bartolo Longo as a new venerated figure for followers. Over 700,000 people packed into the Roman square to watch as Longo, along with the other six, were welcomed into sainthood in the bizarre formality.
Bartolo Longo was born all the way back in 1841 in the Italian city of Latiano, and initially trained as a lawyer. But after his father tragically passed away, he became desperate for a means of an answer, he turned to any way to be in touch with his loved ones.
According to the Daily Mail, he ultimately turned towards the occult and started to become more involved with witchcraft and Satanism. This also involved taking place in a variety of demonic practices, including making pacts with evil spirit, as well as extreme fasting.
He even went as far as to turn to mediums and fortune tellers in order to get answers about what happens to people after death. He even appeared to sell his sold to the devil in order to guarantee the full answers he was looking for, before he was eventually brought back to faith by Professor Vincenzo Pepe.
After going back to Christianity, Bartolo went on to take a vow of celibacy and dedicated the rest of his life to charity, going on to found a shrine on behalf of the Pope in the ruined city of Pompeii. He also went on to open a series of orphanages for both boys and girls, as well as working with prisoners throughout the rest of the 1800s.
In 1922, at the age of 81, he continued his charitable work well into his old age, helping to set up an institute to help daughters of prisoners and reshape them into the working world. He also worked with several groups that had incurable diseases, including lepers.
Longo would eventually pass away at the age of 85, in 1926, and was revered in the church for his ability to come back to the Catholic church after straying so far. During the ceremony, he was canonised in the ceremony together with three nuns, a Venezuelan “doctor of the poor” and an archbishop killed in the Armenian genocide.
Speaking at the ceremony in front of thousands of people at the holy square, Pope Leo VIX said of the recipients of sainthood: “Today we have before us seven witnesses, the new Saints, who, with God’s grace, kept the lamp of faith burning. May their intercession assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness.”
Canonisation is the formal way in which Catholicism deems people saints, and involves a bizarre process that involves the discovery of miracles throughout their lives. The formal process can take years and cardinals working in the Vatican must sift through years of hard work and dedication through a person’s life to determine whether they are worthy of the saintly title.
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