New release seeks to revive St. Bartolo Longo’s ‘Fifteen Saturdays’ devotion
Pope Leo XIV will visit Pompeii on May 8, spotlighting St. Bartolo Longo’s legacy. Seek What Is Above released a new edition of the Fifteen Saturdays devotion to revive the forgotten Marian devotion. The devotion contains 15 meditations on the rosary mysteries drawn from Longo’s writings. Longo, canonized in 2025, was a former Satanic priest who converted and promoted the rosary, founding the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii. The new book aims to reintroduce the devotion ahead of the papal visit.
5 months ago
The Catholic initiative Seek What Is Above has issued a refreshed edition of The Fifteen Saturdays of the Most Holy Rosary to re‑introduce the “Fifteen Saturdays” Marian devotion ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s pilgrimage to Pompeii on May 8, 2026. The publication bundles scriptural meditations, artwork, and sacramental guidelines, aiming to revive a practice once championed by St. Bartolo Longo, the city’s famed “apostle of the Rosary.” 1 2
The new volume presents fifteen‑week meditations on the mysteries of the Rosary, each accompanied by paintings from St. Paul’s Church in Antwerp. It offers both written reflections and visual aids to help the faithful enter more deeply into each mystery. 1 2
Father Joseph‑Anthony Kress, provincial promoter of the Holy Rosary, explains that the edition also encourages reception of the Eucharist and regular confession on each Saturday, integrating the devotion into the Church’s sacramental life. 1 2
Pope Leo XIV will celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Pompeii by visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary and the Chapel of Blessed Bartolo Longo, where the saint’s relics rest. He will also celebrate Mass in Piazza Bartolo Longo. The timing of the book’s release is intended to highlight Longo’s legacy during this papal pilgrimage. 1 2
Longo, canonized by Pope Leo XIV on 19 October 2025, experienced a dramatic conversion from a former “Satanic priest” to a devoted Dominican Third‑Order layman. His early involvement with occultism ended after a professor and Dominican confessor guided him back to the faith. 1 2
Following his conversion, Longo promoted the Rosary, founded orphanages, offered free legal aid to the poor, and helped establish the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary in Pompeii. His work inspired Pope John Paul II’s addition of the luminous mysteries to the Rosary. 1 2
The devotion structures a 15‑week spiritual journey: each Saturday is dedicated to one of the Rosary’s mysteries, with the remainder of the week spent meditating on that mystery. It blends mental prayer with sacramental participation, fostering perseverance, hope, and deeper communion with Christ. 1 2
Kress emphasizes that the practice is not a “quick fix” but a sustained commitment that allows grace to “nourish and nurture” the soul over time. 1 2
Examine St. Bartolo Longo’s Fifteen Saturdays devotion
St. Bartolo Longo’s “Fifteen Saturdays” is best understood (from the Church sources available here) not as a self-contained “system,” but as a Marian-rosary apostolate that expresses the Church’s broader teaching about the Rosary: it is Christ-centered, contemplative, and meant to shape faith and virtue in real life.
The key explicit reference in the sources provided is from Rosarium Virginis Mariae:
“By his whole life’s work and especially by the practice of the ‘Fifteen Saturdays’, Bartolo Longo promoted the Christocentric and contemplative heart of the Rosary…”
So, in the material given to analyze, the Church does not spell out here the exact mechanics (e.g., the precise promises, number/type of prayers, or required conditions). What it does provide is the theological diagnosis: the devotion’s purpose is to promote the Rosary’s Christocentric, contemplative character.
Accordingly, an accurate “examination” must focus on whether the devotion’s spiritual logic fits the Church’s norms for Marian devotion and popular piety, especially in relation to the Rosary, Saturdays, and the liturgical life of the Church.
The Church connects Longo’s holiness and apostolate to the Rosary and to the charity that flows from it.
In the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, Longo’s Marian devotion is presented as grounded in a sincere conviction about the efficacy of prayer, inflamed by love for the Virgin, and oriented toward the good of others—especially the poor and suffering.
Likewise, the Church’s biographical material describes Longo as committed to spreading Marian devotion to the Rosary of Pompeii, founding the sanctuary and initiatives for religious formation, and disseminating the devotion through writings.
And Pope Pius XI highlights the Rosary’s moral and evangelical function:
“The Holy Rosary… is also a stimulus and spur to the practice of evangelic virtues… it nourishes the Catholic Faith, which flourishes again by due meditation on the sacred mysteries…”
Putting these together with Rosarium Virginis Mariae, the Church’s implicit criterion for evaluating “Fifteen Saturdays” is: does it train the heart through meditation on Christ’s mysteries (Rosary) and does it bear fruit in faith and virtue, not merely in external observance?
A second part of the “examination” is why Saturdays matter within Catholic Marian piety—and how that supports Longo’s approach.
The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy teaches that:
This provides an important lens for understanding “Fifteen Saturdays.” Even without the detailed text of Longo’s program in the sources provided, the Church’s theology of Saturday Marian devotion fits a devotion structured as a series: it naturally communicates the idea of sustained discipleship and persevering expectation—culminating in the Sunday rhythm of Resurrection-centered worship.
A third dimension is whether the devotion remains integrated with the Church’s understanding of true prayer—especially in popular piety.
The Directory repeatedly emphasizes that legitimate popular devotions should be in harmony with the liturgy and should connect prayer to life. For example, regarding the Rosary (in the blessing of beads), it stresses a “perfect harmony between prayer and life.”
It also notes, in a different but related context (the Five First Saturdays, by way of principle), that the Church wants to overcome an “overestimation of temporal factors” and to re-contextualize receiving Holy Communion within the Eucharist, so the practice becomes an opportunity to live intensely the paschal mystery.
While that passage is not about Longo’s Fifteen Saturdays specifically, it offers a method the Church uses to evaluate Marian-devotional practices:
Therefore, an authentic “Fifteen Saturdays” devotion—consistent with Rosarium Virginis Mariae—is one that reinforces the Rosary’s Christocentric, contemplative heart and yields growth in virtue, rather than functioning as a merely ritual chain.
The Church also teaches how the mysteries are traditionally distributed across the week.
The Baltimore Catechism states that, according to pious custom:
This matters because Saturday—often connected in devotion to Mary’s vigil and expectation—traditionally aligns with the Rosary’s glorious mysteries (in that system). So a “Fifteen Saturdays” devotion can be theologically consistent with a Sunday-facing rhythm: Mary keeps vigil in hope, and the Rosary’s “glorious” focus intensifies the Resurrection horizon.
From the Church sources provided, the most faithful examination of St. Bartolo Longo’s “Fifteen Saturdays” is:
The provided sources, however, do not include the detailed text of the specific “Fifteen Saturdays” promises/conditions; the analysis here therefore stays at the level where the sources themselves speak explicitly—on the devotion’s Christ-centered, Marian-saturday, virtue-forming character.