Pope Leo created seven new saints at a ceremony on St. Peter’s Square earlier this month, among them was a former Satanic priest.
In front of an estimated 70,000 people, Leo canonized Bartolo Longo, who had once been an occultist priest but later denounced Satan and embraced Christianity.
Born in 1841, Longo was an Italian lawyer who embraced Satanism before rejoining Catholicism before his death in 1926. He founded the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii.
Before returning to the faith he was born into, the Dominican Friars Foundation claimed he went on an extreme fast, which left him severely emaciated, and he had agreed to give his soul to a demon.
He had been drawn into the occult after the death of his father, and sought answers from local mediums, according to Catholic media.
After being talked into rejoining the faith by Catholic Professor Vincenzo Pepe, the foundation announced that he had taken a vow of celibacy and volunteered for two years at the Neapolitan Hospital for Incurables.
He also founded an orphanage for girls in 1887; in 1892, an institute for the sons of prisoners; and in 1922, another for the daughters of prisoners, according to the National Catholic Reporter.
The other saints canonized
The pope also canonized a catechist, three nuns, a Venezuelan “doctor of the poor,” and an archbishop killed in the Armenian genocide.
The new saints bring the total to nine canonized by Leo this year.
"Today we have before us seven witnesses, the new Saints, who, with God's grace, kept the lamp of faith burning," Leo announced. "May their intercession assist us in our trials and their example inspire us in our shared vocation to holiness."