Blessed Bartolo Longo (†1926) was an Italian lawyer and a former Satanic priest who returned to the Catholic faith and became a third order Dominican, dedicating his life to the Rosary and the Virgin Mary. He was eventually awarded a papal knighthood of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. On October 26, 1980, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II, who would call him the "Apostle of the Rosary" and mentioned him specifically in his apostolic letter "Rosarium Virginis Mariae" (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary).