Saint Maria Goretti 19th Century Italian Virgin Martyr

Saint Maria Goretti was born on  October 16, 1890, and she died on July 6, 1902. She was an Italian virgin martyr and one of the youngest saints ever to be canonized. She was born to a farming family, and her father died when she was nine.  When her father died, Saint Maria Goretti took over household duties while her mother and siblings worked in the fields. Maria was beatified in 1947 and canonized in 1950. She is especially venerated in the Congregation of the Passion. Do you think this is a saint you should know?

Saint Maria Goretti Biography

Saint Maria Goretti was born in Italy to Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini. She was the third of seven children: Antonio (who died in infancy), Angelo, Maria, Mariano (Marino), Alessandro (Sandrino), Ersilia, and Teresa. By the time she was five, her family was so poor that they were forced to give up their farm, move, and work for other farmers. In 1896, they moved to Colle Gianturco, about fifty miles outside Rome. In 1899, they moved again to a building they shared with another family, which included Giovanni Serenelli and his son, Alessandro.

Allessandro

One afternoon, Alessandro, the Serenellis’ 20-year-old son, made sexual advances to her. When Saint Maria Goretti refused to submit to him, he stabbed her 14 times. She was taken to the hospital, but she died while forgiving him. He was arrested, convicted, and jailed. During imprisonment, he repented.

Originally, he was going to be sentenced to life, but since he was a minor at the time of the attack, the sentence was commuted to 30 years. The judges even considered that he was not as mature as he was expected to be for a 20-year-old, and that he grew up in a poor, neglectful family, with several brothers and relatives suffering from mental illness and an alcoholic father.

It may also be the case that it was due to Saint Maria Goretti’s mother’s plea for mercy that he was not sentenced to death. He insisted he had attempted to rape her several times and decided to kill her because of her refusal and desperate crying. He remained unrepentant and uncommunicative with the world for three years, until a local bishop, Monsignor Giovanni Blandini, visited him in jail.

After 27 years, he was released from prison and visited Saint Maria Goretti’s mother to beg forgiveness, which she granted. After his release, Alessandro visited Maria’s mother, Assunta, and begged her forgiveness. She forgave him, and they attended Mass together the next day, receiving Holy Communion side by side.  He reportedly prayed to Maria every day and referred to her as “my little saint.” Alessandro later became a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, living in a monastery and working as its receptionist and gardener until he died in 1970 at age 87.

Death of Saint Maria Goretti

It is worth focusing on the death of Saint Maria Goretti because it is so horrible, and it sets up the story of forgiveness. On July 5, 1902, eleven-year-old Maria was sitting on the outside steps of her home, sewing, watching her sister Teresa, while Serenelli was threshing beans in the barnyard.  Knowing she would be alone, Alessandro returned to the house and threatened to stab her with an awl if she did not do what he said; he was intending to rape her.

She would not submit, however, protesting that what he wanted to do was a mortal sin and warning him that he would go to Hell.  She fought desperately and kept screaming about the sinfulness of Alessandro’s acts. Alessandro choked Saint Maria Goretti, then stabbed her fourteen times when she insisted she would rather die than submit to him; he then fled the scene, but not before stabbing Maria a further three times when she tried to reach the door. She died the next day.

Conclusion

The case of Saint Maria Goretti, the eleven-year-old Saint, shows the tremendous power of forgiveness. After the horrible death of Maria, her mother forgave him. He, after being in jail for 27 years, went to Mass with Maria’s mother and later became a priest. We can see the link between forgiveness, which both Maria and her mother gave to Alessandro, and the tremendous accomplishment of becoming a priest.