Fifteen Saturdays
Of The Most Holy Rosary
A Very Efficacious Devotion To Obtain All Kinds Of Graces
Commander Blessed Bartolo Longo
(February 10, 1841 - October 5, 1926)
Bartolo Longo was born in Latiano, Italy, on February 10, 1841. He was brought up in a family and environment strongly anchored to traditional Catholic values. His family prayed the Rosary together daily. However, things changed radically very soon.
At the age of 10, Bartolo Longo’s father passed away and his mother remarried a lawyer. At the age of 22, he set off to Naples to obtain a jurisprudence degree. However, at that time, the old political regime had just been overturned, and with it, the Catholic Church was condemned for her alliance to it and was considered a denier of progress and freedom. The University of Naples too became filled with radical professors who despised and attacked the Catholic Church. Bartolo Longo was smitten by all of this and started to stray from his faith. In addition, he had such a great thirst for knowledge that he began to attend séances, which were widespread in Naples, in the hopes of discovering “truth". He became so enthusiastic about spiritualism that he wanted to become a "priest of the spirit" and receive revelations from the “angel”. Blinded, he believed this “angel” was St. Michael the Archangel, when it was in fact the Devil. And so it was that on one evening, Bartolo Longo was consecrated as a priest of Satan. During this consecration, the church of Satan shook with thunder and spirits shrieked throughout. The noises were so horrible that Bartolo Longo himself fainted with fright.
Soon later, Bartolo Longo began to have doubts and disappointments with the "angel". He did not find the truth he was looking for. Also one evening during a spiritualistic sitting, he encountered the spirit of his dead father urging him to "Return to God! Return to God!", and was deeply disturbed. In fact, his life was marked by extreme depression, paranoia, confusion, and nervousness. He even began to show signs of demonic obsession, as opposed to demonic possession, which included being inflicted by diabolical visions and continually declining poor health. He ultimately experienced a mental breakdown.
He turned to his Catholic friend, Vincenzo Pepe, who directed him to Dominican Father Radente. This priest exorcised Bartolo Longo’s mind for a month, making known to him his errors and revealing to him the truth of his abandoned faith. In the midst of it, he stood and raised a medal of the Blessed Virgin Mother and cried out: "I renounce spiritism because it is nothing but a maze of error and falsehood.
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In what epoch of the year the devotion of the Fifteen Saturdays is practiced
In What Consists the Devotion of the Fifteen Saturdays
The devotion of the Fifteen Saturdays consists in making a vow, viz a simple promise to God, to go to Communion for a space of Fifteen uninterrupted Saturdays, to the memory of the fifteen Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, in order to honor the Blessed Virgin and obtain by her intercession some particular grace.
And as the perfect devotion to Mary is the imitation of her virtues, obtainable by the meditation of her life; it is necessary to meditate on each Saturday a Mystery in order, and draw from it the fruit contained in it, endeavoring to conform one's actions to it, and sanctify the whole day.
We have said a vow or a promise; but should anyone be frightened by this word vow, he could, to avoid any fault in case of nonfulfilment, make steadfast resolution to practice such a pious exercise, which is likewise of a singular efficacy, as will be said afterward.
To prevent any scruple whatever, the vow will be made in such a way, that the Confessor may have the power of commuting, of denying, or granting Communion according to his prudence: for, should the penitent live in deadly sin every Saturday, he would certainly not be allowed to receive the Sacrament so often, as if he were hindered by some occupation or accident.
Priests may commemorate the Mystery at Mass, unless they wish to say the Mass proper of that Mystery; because a particular Mass was already established for each Mystery. So each one of the Joyful Mysteries has a proper Mass; for the Sorrowful Mysteries the Mass De Cruce or De Poenis Christi may be said; and the Glorious Mysteries have their own too, except the last, for which the Mass of the Assumption may be celebrated, which includes both the fourth and the fifth Mystery, viz the Assumption and Coronation of the Blessed Virgin.
The meditations of the devotion of the Fifteen Saturdays in this website were written, and promoted by Bl. Bartolo Longo during his lifetime.
Alternatively, this devotion could be done on Sundays, or, according to circumstance, on fifteen days in a row when taking the Sacrament daily.
Know even more...
According to Blessed Bartolo Longo, O.B.V.Mary expects us to spend fifteen minutes in adoration before the Holy Sacrament every Saturday. Add to your devotionals, or even better; DO your Fifteen Saturdays devotionals in contemplation in a holy hour, before the Holy Sacrament. Learn more about the importance of the Holy Sacrament through the brief letters written to a 'Brother Priest' posted in the blog of this link.
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Bl. Bartolo Longo wrote his inspired petition to the Queen of the Holy Rosary in 1883. The lenghty supplication has lost nothing of its power to soften even the most hardened hearts; it continues to obtain graces in abundance from the hands of the Madonna of the Rosary. It is a prayer for all peoples and for universal peace, a prayer for the whole Church: for the Holy Father and the bishops, for priests, deacons, and the lay faithful of every state in life, with their special intentions, their burdens, and their hopes. The Supplica is, of all Bl. Bartolo Longo's published prayers to the Mother of God, the most famous. Its incandescent words have opened countless souls to the merciful love of Christ through the all-powerful intercession of His Mother.
Get the complete oeuvre of Blessed Bartolo Longo's writing with special prayers, directions, practice, petitions, and a list of examples of plenary, and partial indulgences granted, graces, miracles, and wonders performed around the world through the years, by Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary through the devotion of the Fifteen Saturdays of the Most Holy Rosary.
The fifteen promises of the Virgin Mary for those who pray the Rosary, in one infographic.
Visit the Pontificio Santuario di Pompeii online and know even more about Blessed Bartolo Longo, the Our Lady f the Most Holy Rosary original painting, and about the Lady of The Rosary shrine in Pompeii, Italy, in your own language.
