Pompei is not an apparition site; it is a shrine founded for the Rosary itself. Bartolo Longo came to the valley in 1872, began teaching the Rosary to its farmers, and in 1875 brought from Naples a worn painting of Our Lady of the Rosary with St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena. The first stone of the church was laid on May 8, 1876, and it was consecrated in 1891. St. John Paul II came in October 2003, at the close of the Year of the Rosary, and Pope Leo XIV on May 8, 2026.
The shrine's own schedule, read on October 10, 2026, lists several weekday Masses at the high altar each morning and again several times in the afternoon and evening (the evening Masses are fewer in July and August), and about ten Sunday Masses spread from early morning until night. The Bartolo Longo chapel has weekday Mass in the morning, around midday and in the early evening. The Rosary is prayed at the high altar every day in the morning, mid-afternoon and early evening. Confessions are heard daily from early morning until early afternoon and again from mid-afternoon until early evening.
Good to know before you go: the shrine names two stops on the Circumvesuviana railway from Naples. Pompei Santuario, on the Naples to Poggiomarino line, is the stop for the shrine; on the Naples to Sorrento line the shrine directs pilgrims to Pompei Villa dei Misteri, the stop that also serves the ruins, so the two visits combine in one day. Trenitalia trains also stop at Pompei. The great days are May 8 and the first Sunday of October, when the Supplication is prayed and the town is very full.