Goretti was born Maria Teresa Goretti on October 16, 1890 in Corinaldo, in the Province of Arcona, in Italy, to Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini. She was the third out of six children. Her sisters were named Teresa and Ersilia; her brothers were Angelo, Sandrino, and Mariano.
By the time she was six, her family had become so poor that they were forced to give up their farm, move, and work for other farmers. Soon, Maria's father Luigi became very sick with malaria, and died when Maria was just nine. While her brothers, mother, and sister worked in the fields, Maria would cook, sew, watch her infant sister, and keep the house clean. It was a hard life, but the family was very close. They shared a deep love for God and the faith. She and her family moved to a building where they shared with another family which included Giovanni Serenelli and his son, Alessandro.
On July 5, 1902, finding eleven-year-old Maria alone sewing, Alessandro Serenelli came in and threatened her with death if she did not do as 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 Alessandro that he would go to hell. She desperately fought to stop Alessandro, a 20-year-old farmhand, from abusing her. She kept screaming, "No! It is a sin! God does not want it!" Alessandro first choked Maria, but when she insisted she would rather die than submit to him, he stabbed her eleven times. The injured Maria tried to reach for the door, but Alessandro stopped her by stabbing her three more times before running away.
Maria's little sister Teresa awoke with the noise and started crying, and when Serenelli's father and Maria's mother came to check on the little girl, they found the bleeding Maria and took her to the nearest hospital in Nettuno. She underwent surgery without anesthesia but her injuries were beyond the doctors' help. Halfway through the surgery, Maria woke up. She insisted that it stay that way. That is because she offered her pain for the conversion of sinners. The following day, twenty hours after the attack, having expressed forgiveness for her murderer and stating that she wanted to have him in heaven with her, Maria died of her injuries, while looking at a very beautiful picture of the Blessed Mother.
Alessandro Serenelli was captured shortly after Maria's death. Originally, he was going to be sentenced to life, but since he was a minor at that time the sentence was commuted to 30 years in prison. He remained unrepentant and uncommunicative from the world for three years, until a local bishop, Giovanni Blandini, visited him in jail. Serenelli wrote a thank you note to the Bishop asking for his prayers and telling him about a dream, "in which Maria Goretti gave him lilies, which burned immediately in his hands."
After his release, Alessandro Serenelli visited Maria's still-living mother, Assunta, and begged her forgiveness. She forgave him, saying that if Maria had forgiven him on her deathbed then she couldn't do less, and they attended Mass together the next day, receiving communion side by side. Alessandro reportedly prayed every day to Maria Goretti and referred to her as "my little saint." He attended her canonization in 1950.
Serenelli later became a laybrother of the Capuchin Franciscan Friars living in a monastery and working as its receptionist and gardener until dying peacefully in 1970.
The life of St. Maria Goretti, teaches us adherence to the commandments of God even to the point of giving our lives to it. She became a saint not so much of refusing to be raped rather through her firm resolution not to engage in sin. How many of us chooses to do wrong even if we have a clear choice to do what is right! How many of us chooses to degrade our body even if we willfully knows that it is a sin! We might reason out that we are just frail human beings, that we are not exempted from temptation. But we must know that temptations are actually invitations for us to do good. How many us are actually allowing themselves to be nearer to temptation! However, I think it is because we are born in this world which actually refuses to heed the Gospel of Christ. That is why as Christians, we must be evangelizers and be a role model to our fellow youth. Our young saints who lived exemplary lives like St. Maria Goretti teaches us that chastity is possible in this world corrupted of good values and we can be one with them.
And St. Maria Goretti also teaches us how to forgive. She willfully forgives her murderer and even prays for his conversion. And this has borne fruit since her murderer repents publicly, became a religious and even attended her canonization. Her charity has indeed converted the hardened heart of his murderer. She is indeed a model for us all especially the young, in her love for God by obeying his commandments to the point of death and in her love for her neighbor to the point of imitating the example of Christ who prays for his enemies at the hour of his death.
Let us pray that she may intercede for us and obtain for us the grace to be faithful to God and his commandments, purity of both mind and body and genuine love for our brothers and sisters including those who seems to be unworthy of our love.
St. Maria Goretti, patroness of the youth, pray for us!
No comments:
Post a Comment