Blessed Bartolo Longo Shrine
Fr. Richard Fragomeni’s Comments on the Relic Altar of Bartolo Long –
A Gift from the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre
Many times throughout the year you will hear me say that our Shrine needs a facelift and our goal is to make the inside of The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii as beautiful as the day it was created in the beginning of the 20th century. I am proud to proclaim we are one giant step further in making that happen.
When the parish formally closed in the beginning of the 1990’s, the property (owned by the Archdiocese) was to be sold. The Italian-American community marshaled their forces together and asked that this property be allowed to remain as a tribute to the Italian-Americans.
REstoring the shrine
In the past 20 plus years, we have done a lot of restorations to make the bones of the building safe and secure: We completed tuck pointing on the exterior, the bell tower was shored up and we even patched all the holes that were letting cold air in.
Blessed Bartolo Longo Dedication Of Relic Altar Dedication Mass Program October 21 2016
Fr. Richard Fragomeni’s Comments from the Dedication Mass, October 21, 2016
With deep gratitude, we dedicate today the Relic Altar of Blessed Bartolo Longo.
We are grateful to The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem for the generous gift given to us for the completion of this beautiful tribute, honoring a Knight who lived out the motto of the order:
Deus lo vult – God wills it!
May Blessed Bartolo Longo be honored here. May he guide and direct, with God’s grace, the work of the Knights and Dames, who continue to do what God wills for the flourishing of the Reign of God in Jerusalem, in Pompei, Italy and in the United States of America.
Prayer for the Canonization of Blessed Bartolo Longo
God, Father of mercy, we praise you for having sent into the history of mankind, the Blessed Bartolo Longo, ardent apostle of the Rosary and shining example of a layman deeply involved in the evangelical witnessing of faith and of charity.
We thank you for his extraordinary spiritual journey, his prophetic intuitions, his tireless endeavors on behalf of the poorest and the neglected, the devotion with which he served your Church and built the new city of love at Pompeii.
We beseech you, grant that Blessed Bartolo Longo soon be numbered among the Saints of the universal Church, so that everyone may follow him as a model of life and benefit by his intercession. Amen.
Blessed Bartolo Longo’s Prayer to Our Lady of the Rosary
O blessed rosary of Mary, sweet chain which unites us to God, bond of love which unites us to the angels, tower of salvation against the assaults of hell, safe port in our universal shipwreck, we will never abandon you. You will be our comfort in the hour of death; yours our final kiss as life ebbs away. And the last word from our lips will be your sweet name, O Queen of the Rosary of Pompeii, O dearest Mother, O Refuge of Sinners, O Sovereign Consoler of the Afflicted. May you be everywhere blessed, today and always, on earth and in heaven. Amen!
Prayer to Blessed Bartolo Longo
O Blessed Bartolo Longo, you who loved Mary with the tenderness of a son and who spread devotion by the reciting of the Holy Rosary and through her intercession received superabundant grace to love and serve Christ through service to abandoned children, obtain for us the grace to live in the spirit of prayer united to God, to love him, as you did, through our brothers. You, who at the end of your earthly journey declared never having tired of praying for every pain, for every hardship, for every calamity, trusting in the omnipotence of God and in the intercession of His Divine Mother, continue to intercede for those who are called to continue your work of faith and love at Pompeii and for all the Rosarians of the world. Pray for us that we, after the earthly contemplation of the joyful and sorrowful Mysteries, can with you share the joy of the glorious Mysteries in heaven with Mary, Queen of the angels and of the Saints. Amen
