Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 5, 2022 / 15:00 pm (CNA).
Catholics worldwide celebrate the feast day of one of the youngest saints on July 6: St. Maria Goretti. At just 11 years old, she died a martyr after being fatally stabbed. Today, the Church recognizes her example of purity — and forgiveness.
Goretti was born into poverty in 1890 in Corinaldo, Italy. When she was nine years old, her father died from malaria. An example of piety and virtue from a young age, she prayed the rosary every night in repose for her father’s soul. Goretti also took on many responsibilities — caring for her younger siblings and performing household chores — so that her mother could take her father’s place working in the fields as a farmer.
On July 5, 1902, a 20-year-old neighboring farmhand, Alessandro Serenelli, attempted to rape Goretti. While Serenelli had made sexual advances before, she rejected him each time in the name of God. This time, she rejected him again, shouting, “No! It is a sin! God does not want it!” When Goretti declared that she would rather die, Serenelli stabbed her 14 times.
After being rushed to a hospital, she underwent surgery without anesthesia. She died the following day. Before going to heaven, she forgave her murderer, declaring, “Yes, for the love of Jesus I forgive him…and I want him to be with me in Paradise.”
While serving his 30-year prison sentence, Serenelli repented for his sins after Goretti appeared to him in a vision and offered him 14 lilies representing her 14 stab wounds.
Serenelli later asked for and received forgiveness from Goretti’s mother.
He went on to live a life of rediscovered dignity and joy in forgiveness. He became a Third Order Franciscan lay brother and, among other things, tended to the monastery grounds.
“At the age of 20, I committed a crime of passion, the memory of which still horrifies me today,” he wrote in a letter, dated May 5, 1961. “Maria Goretti, now a saint, was my good angel whom God placed in my path to save me. Her words both of rebuke and forgiveness are still imprinted in my heart. She prayed for me, interceding for her killer.”
In the letter, discovered by his fellow brothers after his death, he added, “Little Maria was truly my light, my protectress.”
In 1950, Goretti was canonized by Pope Pius XII, becoming the youngest recognized Roman Catholic saint at the time.
“So let us all, with God’s grace, strive to reach the goal that the example of the virgin martyr, Saint Maria Goretti, sets before us,” the pope said in a homily during her canonization. “Through her prayers to the Redeemer may all of us, each in his own way, joyfully try to follow the inspiring example of Maria Goretti who now enjoys eternal happiness in heaven.”
Goretti is the patron saint of purity, rape victims, young women, and youth.
In one quote, Goretti stresses God’s forgiveness for all: “He loves, He hopes, He waits. Our Lord prefers to wait Himself for the sinner for years rather than keep us waiting an instant.”
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Thanks Maisy Sullivan for an informative, beautiful account of the very young martyr saint Maria Goretti. The details of her intercession to save her murderer’s soul from eternal damnation are remarkable. His repentance as well.
I have fond memories visiting her reliquary at the seaside Basilica of Our Lady of Graces in Nettuno just 40 m S of Rome.
A true model of purity in a world that has forgotten this precious virtue.
St. Maria Goretti is an example of purity because her rapist did not complete his attack, correct? Another source says “she managed to keep her virtue.” This means that those of us who do get raped have lost our virtue and are impure, yes? If this conclusion is incorrect, I’d love to know why we talk about her the way we do. The emphasis is not on her forgiving her aggressor, but on her “purity” and how she’d rather die than survive as a victim of rape. Every year this day feels like adding insult to injury, so I’d appreciate any recontextualization that will make it less painful in the future.
The examples of the saints can hit us like hard blows; but even then, they point us to take a more precise look at ourselves with the encouragement to seek God more firmly in spite of what we find or how much has been neglected. All good things come from God and all praise is due back to Him. Another way to understand Maria Goretti’s virtue is, by considering the heroic soldier who puts himself in harm’s way, courageously and justly, to achieve an objective; and he succeeds at the cost of his life. The glory will always be his and his comrades remain indebted for the benefits.
Maria Goretti can only be described and appreciated according to what in good and positive that extol her free will and fidelity. Stop yourself thinking otherwise. What I say is but a small offering and she can be spoken of more glowingly. Maria Goretti defended her purity at the price of winning heaven. In other words, reject wrong comparing. My exhortation can be offered with a negative picture, that I will write in the next paragraph; and may it serve to put you off a bad way.
How many people just give away their own purity for “gaining” a shambles. And more, they make easy compromises on any issue -it doesn’t have to be about purity only,- at the drop of a hat, thinking that it makes like better, when, actually, it confirms them on the courses of corruptibility. Instead, they really stand firm on selfishness and often they add envy to the bitterness they feel at the sight of the saint’s crown, making everything sullied or mediocre to the standards on their chosen path. And the worst of it is they want to abide with that to the very end!