Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeia

"O Blessed Rosary of Mary, sweet chain that unites us to God!"

Of all Marian asvocations, few are as close to the Holy Rosary as the Virgin of Pompeii. His sanctuary, raised in the Vesuvius valley by Blessed Bartolo Longo, is today one of the great world centers of the Rosary prayer.

Origin of devotion

Devotion was born from the hand of the Blessed Bartolo Longo (1841-1926), a converted lawyer who arrived in the Pompeii Valley in 1872 and began to promote the prayer of the Rosary among the peasants. In 1875 he obtained an old image of the Virgin of the Rosary, in the Byzantine-Neapolitan style, which was placed in a small church; thanksgiving accounts attributed to his intercession were soon spread.

The growing flow of pilgrims led to the construction of a great sanctuary, whose first stone was blessed in 1876. The Pope Lion XIII supported the work, raised the temple to the pontifical basilica and approved the famous Replies to the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary of Pompeia, composed of Bartolo Longo. He was later visited by John Paul II (1979 and 2003) and Pope Francis (2015).

The Pompey supplica

The most characteristic feature of this advocation is the Apply to the Virgin of Pompeiaa solemn prayer that is recited throughout the world every May 8 and the first Sunday of October, at noon, as an act of trust and consecration to the Rosary.