Pope Leo XIV Canonizes Seven New Saints, Including Former Satanic Priest Turned Catholic Icon

Pope Leo XIV canonized seven new saints on Sunday, October 19, during a solemn ceremony at the Vatican that drew more than 70,000 pilgrims and faithful from around the world. The canonization marks the second since Pope Leo XIV assumed leadership of the Catholic Church in May and featured an especially remarkable figure among the newly declared saints — Bartolo Longo, a former Satanic priest who became a symbol of spiritual redemption within Catholicism.

Longo, an Italian lawyer who died in 1926 at age 85, is remembered for his extraordinary conversion and his tireless devotion to the Church following a troubled youth marked by deep involvement in the occult. After losing his mother and being swept up in the anti-clerical movements that accompanied Italy’s unification, Longo turned away from Catholicism and became a high-ranking priest in a Satanic sect, even presiding over dark rituals and pledging himself to the devil. His return to faith, however, was equally dramatic. Influenced by his family and a university professor, Longo renounced his past and devoted the rest of his life to promoting devotion to the Virgin Mary. He later founded the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii, a major center of Catholic pilgrimage that endures to this day. Before his canonization, he was widely regarded as a spiritual guide for those struggling with faith or seeking redemption.

Alongside Longo, Pope Leo XIV canonized six other figures, including an archbishop martyred during the Armenian genocide, a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea, a Venezuelan physician known as the “doctor of the poor,” and three nuns celebrated for their charitable service. Portraits of the seven new saints were unfurled above St. Peter’s Square as the Pope declared them worthy of universal veneration.

“Today we have before us seven witnesses, the new Saints, who, with God’s grace, kept the lamp of faith burning,” Pope Leo XIV said during his homily. “May their intercession assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness.”

Canonization, the highest honor in the Catholic Church, requires evidence that the person led an exemplary Christian life and performed at least two miracles attributed to their intercession.

The ceremony follows last month’s canonization of Carlo Acutis, known as “God’s Influencer,” and Pier Giorgio Frassati, both of whom have become icons of modern Catholic youth.