St. Maria Goretti SCC

Born in October 16, 1890 – July 6, 1902 Maria Teresa Goretti is an Italian virgin martyr of the Catholic
Church, and one of the youngest saints to be canonized. She was born to a farming family. Her father
died when she was nine, and the family had to share a house with another family, the Serenellis. She
took over household duties while her mother and siblings worked in the fields.

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

After 27 years, he was released from prison and visited her mother to beg forgiveness, which she
granted. He later became a lay brother in a Capuchin Monastery and died in 1970. She was beatified in
1947 and canonized in 1950. She is especially venerated in the Congregation of the Passion
(Passionists).

Maria was beatified on April 27, 1947. In attendance at the ceremony were both Assunta and Pope
Pius XII. On the evening of the ceremony in Saint Peter’s Basilica, the Pope walked over to and greeted
Assunta. She later reported, “When I saw the Pope coming, I prayed, ‘Madonna, please help me’, and
I felt faint. He put his hand on my head and said, “Blessed mother, happy mother, mother of a Blessed!”
Afterward, both could be seen with eyes wet with tears.

Three years later, on June 24, 1950, Pius XII canonized Maria as a saint, the “Saint Agnes of the 20th
century. Assunta was again present at the ceremony, along with her four remaining sons and
daughters. Alessandro was also present.

Owing to the huge crowd present, the ceremonies associated with the canonization were held
outside Saint Peter’s Basilica, in the Piazza San Pietro. Pius XII spoke, not as before in Latin, but in
Italian. “We order and declare, that the blessed Maria Goretti can be venerated as a Saint and we
introduce her into the Canon of Saints”. Some 500,000 people, among them a majority of youth, had
come from around the world. Pius asked them: “Young people, pleasure of the eyes of Jesus, are you
determined to resist any attack on your chastity with the help of the grace of God?” A resounding “yes”
was the answer.

Maria’s three brothers would claim that she intervened miraculously in their lives. Angelo heard her
voice telling him to emigrate to America. Alessandro was reportedly miraculously given a sum of
money to finance his own emigration to join Angelo. Sandrino died in the United States in 1917, and
Angelo died in Italy when he returned there in 1964. Mariano said he heard her voice telling him to
stay in his trench when the rest of his unit partook in a charge against Austro-Hungarian soldiers in the
Isonzo during World War I. He, the only survivor of that charge, lived until 1975 and had a large family.
Maria’s remains are kept in the crypt of the Passionist Basilica of Nostra Signora delle Grazie e Santa
Maria Goretti in Nettuno, south of Rome. It is often incorrectly reported that her body remained incorrupt after her death. This is because her skeletal remains are contained in a wax statue
lying on its back inside a glass casket and the statue has been mistaken for her body.