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| The only known photograph of Maria Goretti |
Today I would
like to tell you the story of a remarkable young girl called Maria Goretti, who
died in 1902 three months before her 12th birthday. Maria was born
into a farming family, near Ancona in the east of Italy. She was one of seven
children. They were poor farmers and eventually had to sell their own farm and
work for others. They ended up working on another farm in Paliano, about fifty
miles south of Rome. Her father contracted malaria and died when she was just
nine. They ended up sharing a house with a father and son by the name of
Giovanni and Alessandro Serenelli. Their life was hard, but they were a close
family. Maria generally stayed in the house doing housework and minding the youngest
children, while the others worked on the farm.
Alessandro Serenelli,
was eight years older than Maria and several times had tried to take advantage
of her, but each time she refused. One day when he knew she was in the house on
her own, he cornered her and threatened to kill her if she didn’t give in to
him. She refused and kept saying that it was a mortal sin and God would not
want it and that he would go to hell. Eventually in a rage, he stabbed her
fourteen times, leaving her for dead. When her family found her, she was rushed
to hospital, but she died the next day from her wounds. However, before she
died she said that she forgave Alessandro because she wanted him to be with her
in heaven when he died.
Alessandro
was arrested and sentenced to thirty years in prison. Initially he was
completely unrepentant. In fact, as is often the case with sexual predators, he
blamed Maria, saying that if she had just given in to him, none of this would
have happened. It claimed that it was basically her fault. However, six years
later Maria appeared to him in a dream. She was holding lilies and she allowed
fourteen of them to fall into his hands, but as each one landed in his hands it
turned to ashes. This experience brought about a profound conversion in
Alessandro. He understood the fourteen flowers to mean the fourteen times he
had stabbed her and that she had forgiven him. From this moment on, his life
changed completely. He became totally repentant and a model prisoner, so much
so that he was eventually released three years early because of his exceptional
behavior.
When he was released,
after serving twenty-seven years in prison, he went straight to Maria’s mother’s
house and begged her to forgive him for what he had done. She said to him that
if Maria was able to forgive him, she could too. The two of them attended mass
together the next day and received Holy Communion side by side. Alessandro
spent the rest of his life in a Franciscan monastery, helping out as a receptionist
and in the garden.
Maria Goretti
was canonized in 1950 by Pope Pius XII in St. Peter’s Basilica. Both Maria’s
mother Assunta and Alessandro, as well as some of her siblings, were there for
her canonization. Her canonization was the first one to be held out-doors in
St. Peter’s square, because of the size of the crowd. It is estimated that
about 500,000 people attended the ceremony. Alessandro died peacefully in 1970
at the age of 87. All this because of the bravery of an eleven-year-old girl,
who was willing to suffer rather than offend God.
What has this
got to do with us today? At the moment as we hear about so much evil, and
sexual abuse, I think it is good to be reminded of the extraordinary good that
God can bring out of the most evil of situations. Who would have thought that
an 11 year old girl could inspire so many people and bring about the conversion
of a murderer and rapist?
St. Maria
Goretti, virgin and martyr, pray for us.
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