Saint Maria Goretti

Maria was born at Corinaldo, Ancona in Italy into a poor but loving home and was one of six children. She was baptized the day after she was born. Her father Luigi Goretti was a farmer. Her mother Assunta, was a poor orphan girl who did not know how to read or write. Luigi and Assunta loved God, Mother Mary and each other.

When Maria was six, she played  like other children, running through  the grass, picking flowers, laughing and smiling. Maria played more often with her younger brothers and sister, and kept them happy so they would not trouble their mother.

Then the family moved to the Pontine Marshes where Luigi, along with his partner Mr. Serenelli and his sixteen year old son Alexander, lived together on Conte Mazolenni's farm as tenant farmers. Luigi became very ill and died there leaving Maria and her family helpless.

She was a friendly girl and everyone loved her. A cheerful grocer Giovanni, gave Maria an apple one day, after she had finished paying for her groceries. But Maria did not eat it.

Instead, she thanked Giovanni and put it in her pocket saying that her brother Allesandrino loved apples. Then he gave her a cookie, which again she put in her pocket saying that she would give it to her little sister Ersilia. Giovanni finally gave her another cookie and said he would be very hurt if she didn't eat it herself. So Maria not wanting to offend him, ate it.

She went to Mass everyday even though it meant  a two-hour walk. Maria received the Sacrament of Reconciliation as often as she could. When she came home,  whe thought the children their prayers and told them Bible stories. Alexander who often joined the family for the rosary slowly began to notice how pretty Maria was.

He tried to make Maria sin. She absolutely refused and did her best to avoid him. One day when Maria was alone in the cottage mending clothes Alexander asked Maria to come to him, and when she refused, he dragged her into a room. When she tried to scream, he stuffed a hand-kerchief  into her mouth and angrily  stabbed her 14 times with a dagger and then ran away.

When they found her, Maria was quickly taken  to a hospital but she died about twenty-four hours later. During her last hours she received Jesus in Holy Communion with great joy. She then told the priest that she forgave Alexander with all her heart, for the love of Jesus and hoped God would forgive him too.

Alexander was sent to prison  for thirty years. For a long time,  he did not feel sorry for what he had done.  Then one night Maria appeared  to him in a dream, walking in a garden and offering him a bunch of lilies. She said, she hoped he would  come to heaven one day. From that moment on, he was a changed man.

He wrote a letter to the bishop, begging God's forgiveness for the great sin he had committed. When he was freed from prison after twenty seven years,  his first visit was to the Goretti home where he asked Maria's mother for forgiveness, which she granted.

On April 27, 1947,  Pope Pius XII appeared on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica  with Maria's 82 years old mother, Assunta and declared Maria 'blessed'.

Three years later, on June 24, in a grand ceremony  that had to be held outside the Basilica because the crowds were so huge, Maria was declared a saint. The Pope called her "a martyr of holy purity". 

Today she is the Patron Saint of teenage girls and modern youth.