Bartolo Longo composed the Pompei novena, 54 days of praying five decades of the Rosary as a means of seeking grace in desperate cases and built the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Holy Rosary.
Religious leaders from China, Russia, the Middle East, and the Vatican are converging in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Sept. 17–18 for the VIII Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.