Pope Leo XIV canonized seven religious figures who were posthumously elevated to sainthood on Sunday, October 19, with the group notably including a former Satanic priest who became a Catholic legend. 

More than 70,000 onlookers gathered at the Vatican to witness the historic canonization, the second performed by Pope Leo XIV since his selection as the new leader of the Catholic Church in May.

Among the celebrated figures was Bartolo Longo, an Italian lawyer and former high-ranking Satanic priest who returned to Catholicism. Longo, who died in 1926 at the age of 85, was instrumental in founding the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii.

Longo’s deviation from the Catholic Church began after losing his mother early in life. Around the same time, Giuseppe Garibaldi was advocating for the elimination of papal city states in the effort to unify Italy. Longo soon became involved in the occult, quickly rising to a high-ranking position within the Satanic Church where he presided over services and rituals, including promising himself to the devil.
 

His departure from Catholicism was short-lived, however. He rededicated himself to the church with renewed fervor, reportedly thanks to the influence of his family and a professor at the University of Naples, where he was studying law. Before being promoted to a saint, Bartolo was already informally regarded as a patron saint for those struggling with their spiritual life.
 

The remaining figures newly canonized include an archbishop killed during the Armenian genocide, a lay catechist from Papua New Guinea, a Venezuelan “doctor of the poor,” and three nuns who dedicated their lives to charity.