The Order’s Jubilee pilgrimage to Pompeii

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The Order’s Jubilee pilgrimage to Pompeii

By decision of the Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, October 15 next the Italian Liutenances will make a Jubilee pilgrimage to the Shrine of Pompeii. Many are expected to participate, not only the Italian members of the Order, but also all the Knights and Dames of the world who wish to attend, knowing that the various Lieutenancies will have to organize travel and accommodation for their members.

Blessed Bartolo Longo, who until now was the only lay member of the Order to be beatified, was defined by St. John Paul II as a “man of the Virgin”.

In his homily at the beatification, October 26, 1980, the Pope said of him that “for the sake of Mary, he became a writer, an apostle of the Gospel, a speaker of the Rosary, founder of the famous sanctuary in spite of the enormous difficulties; for love of Mary he created charities, he became a beggar for the children of the poor, he turned Pompeii into a living citadel of human and Christian goodness; for love of Mary, he endured tribulations and slander in silence, he underwent a long Gethsemane, trusting in Providence, ever obedient to the Pope and the Church”. His human and spiritual path, which is in itself a message of love, shows us how great the mercy of God is and how profound the conversion of a heart can be. Every day, in Pompeii, pilgrims experience the triumph of grace over the ruins of sin, according to Bartolo Longo.

In an interview with Msgr. Tommaso Caputo, the prelate archbishop and papal delegate of Pompeii, prior of the “Napoli - Lady of the Rosary” section of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, told us: “Seeing the sanctuary and all the works of charity built from scratch, with “a penny a month”, allows us to touch with our own hands the truth of God’s message of love, through the mediation of the Virgin, gifted to Bartolo Longo, not only for himself, but for all of us”.


(April 25, 2016)