Our Lady of Pompeii

A special devotion to the Blessed Mother of Pompeii is celebrated today in various churches. One of the persons who spread the devotion towards Our Lady of Pompeii is an Italian man who was beatified in 1980 by Pope St. John Paul II. His name was Bartolo Longo who built a huge Basilica in 1883 in Pompeii in Mary’s honor. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum was destroyed by a volcanic eruption of Mt Vesuvius in the first century AD. By the last half of the nineteenth century the Valley of Pompeii, near Naples, was practically deserted. In October 1872, Bartolo Longo came to the valley. He had been reared a Catholic, although it seems he was not very devout. On October 9th, a few days after his arrival, he was walking along a rather desolate road when suddenly a voice seemed to speak to him. It told him that if he wished to be saved, he should spread devotion to the Rosary. Bartolo fell on his knees and replied that if the Virgin had truly so promised then he would be saved; he would not leave the valley until he had popularized the Rosary. His early efforts to interest the people in the Rosary devotion do not seem to have been very successful, but he persisted, and in two or three years he had gathered quite a group around him for the daily recitation of the prayers in the little chapel. The Bishop visited the valley in 1875 and he suggested that a church be built there in honor of Our Lady of Pompeii. As the number of people taking part in the daily recitation of the Rosary grew, it was decided to obtain a picture of the Blessed Virgin, and Bartolo searched hard for a really good picture but could not find any, and could only afford a second-hand painting from a junk store for five lire (today a few cents worth). A trucker not knowing what the package contained pitched it on top of a load of garbage and so the picture arrived at the chapel. The people enshrined the painting and almost immediately several miracles took place through Mary’s intercession as Our Lady of Pompeii. The Miraculous painting of Our Lady of Pompeii was restored three times, and crowned with two golden crowns, one for Mary and one for baby Jesus. The painting shows Mary with baby Jesus and two saints who spread the devotion of the Rosary, St Dominic and St Catherine of Siena. With the approval of Pope Leo XIII, the church was built between 1876 and 1891. A new basilica was built between 1934 and 1939, ordered by Pope Pius XI. Many people visit this beautiful Church near Naples every May 8, when her feast day is celebrated. The devotion is also popular in Malta, where a church is dedicated to her in the parish of Marsaxlokk.