St. Maria Goretti
Feast date: Jul 06
July 6 marks the feast day of St. Maria Goretti, a young virgin and martyr whose life is an example of purity and mercy for all Christians.
St. Maria Goretti is best known for her commitment to purity and the courageous defence of her faith at the young age of eleven that made her willing to undergo death rather than participate in a sin against God. She is also remarkable for the forgiveness she willingly granted her attacker as she lay on her deathbed.
Maria was born in Corinaldo, Italy on October 16, 1890. Her father, a farmer, died of malaria when she was young, and her mother had to work to support their six children.
Maria took care of the younger children while her mother worked, and she prayed the Rosary every night for the repose of her father’s soul. She grew in grace and maturity, and her cheerful obedience and piety were noticed by those around her.
On July 5, 1902, a neighbouring farm hand, Alessandro Serenelli, tried to rape Maria. On several prior occasions, Alessandro had harassed Maria with impure advances, all of which she has vehemently rejected. This time, he locked her in a room and tried to force himself upon her. She fought against him, shouting, “No! It is a sin! God does not want it!” and warning him that this was the path towards hell. When Maria declared that she would rather die than submit to this sin, Alessandro angrily grabbed her and stabbed her 14 times with a knife.
Maria was found bleeding to death and rushed to the hospital. As she lay dying, she forgave Alessandro for the crime he had committed against her, saying, “Yes, for the love of Jesus I forgive him…and I want him to be with me in Paradise.”
Although the doctors tried to save her, she died two agonizing days later, only eleven years old.
Alessandro was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He remained unrepentant until one night, eight years into his prison term, when Maria appeared to him, dressed in white, gathering lilies in a garden. She smiled, turned towards Alessandro, and offered him the flowers. Each lily he took transformed into a white flame. Then Maria disappeared.
From that moment, Alessandro converted and found peace. He repented of his crime and changed his life. He was released from prison three years early and begged forgiveness from Maria’s mother, which she duly granted.
Alessandro moved to a Capuchin monastery, working in the garden as a tertiary for the remainder of his life. He was one of the witnesses who testified to Maria’s holiness during her cause of beatification, citing the crime and the vision in prison.
Many miracles were attributed to Maria Goretti after her death. In 1950, she was canonised by Pope Pius XII, becoming the youngest Roman Catholic saint officially recognised by name. Her feast day is celebrated by the Church on July 6, and she is the patron saint of purity, rape victims, young women, and youth in general.
On her feast day in 2003, Pope John Paul II spoke about St. Maria Goretti at his Sunday Angelus, noting that her life provides an exemplary witness of what it means to be “pure of heart.”
“What does this fragile but christianly mature girl say to today’s young people, through her life and above all through her heroic death?” asked the Pope.
“Marietta, as she was lovingly called, reminds the youth of the third millennium that true happiness demands courage and a spirit of sacrifice, refusing every compromise with evil and having the disposition to pay personally, even with death, faithful to God and his commandments.”
“How timely this message is,” the Holy Father continued. “Today, pleasure, selfishness and directly immoral actions are often exalted in the name of the false ideals of liberty and happiness. It is essential to reaffirm clearly that purity of heart and of body go together, because chastity ‘is the custodian’ of authentic love.”
Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-maria-goretti-530
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Whistler Blowers, Insiders
The recollection of the story of St. Maria Goretti is always the cause of emotions due to the charity of this young virgin martyr who forgave the man who had done harm to her. Thank you CNA, once again for your dedicated column.
This particular article, however gives the rising of a ‘theological’ question. Jesus Christ on the Cross, prayed the Father to forgive “them”. Those “them” were the ones who inflicted harm to Our Lord directly? or to all the other ones who inflicted harm “to other than Him on the Cross”?
In other words: I may, at my entire discretion, forgive the harm done to me, personally, but may I take the liberty to forgive the harm done to others. Should not I selfishly ‘appropriate’ a forgiveness done for the harm inflicted to others, while having never been hurt? In other words: Maria Goretti forgave Alessandro, because she could, for having been harmed, as well as the mother of Maria (Goretti) could forgive Alessandro for the harm done for losing a child, BUT may I ‘Daughter of the Church’ also “forgive” Alessandro? This latest “forgiveness” seems a misappropriation. I may not forgive the harm done to others. Only God may.
Let’s return to the topic of the article, which has been placed upon the forgiveness done to you personally, as opposed to the harms done to others. Antipope “Saint” John-Paul II spoke about St. Maria Goretti, but he himself, during his tenure as faux Vicar of Christ demoted two similar child martyr saints, who…
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… Antipope “Saint” John-Paul II spoke about St. Maria Goretti, but he himself, during his tenure as faux Vicar of Christ demoted two similar child martyr saints, who are St. Simon of Trend (two years old), and St. Philomena (about eleven/twelve years old). Those blotting-out of child martyr saints, who had been canonized through due process by authentic Vicars of Christ has been done for reasons that this comments will not dwell upon, but what must be told loud and clear, is that the demotion of those two particular child martyr saints has done harm to me (Daughter of the Church), which I forgive to this scoundrel antipope, but may I (Daughter of the Church) forgive the harm done by the scoundrel hireling to the entire Roman Catholic Church and the rest of the world? Unless I am ‘a god’, I may not.
As for the harms done by CNA through its pandering to the counter-church, I forgive, but could it not be presumptuous and misappropriate to ‘forgive’ CNA’s redaction room’s staff for the harms done to the many others who have not received the gift of been able to read between the lines? God forbid! This daughter would become complicit to a satanic grand deceit disguised under bogus compassion, hypocritical ‘theology’, fake charity.