Maria Goretti
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Maria Goretti For the Indian actress, see Maria Goretti (actress). For 1 Biography the neighbourhood in Porto Alegre, Brazil, see Santa Maria Goretti, Rio Grande do Sul. 1.1 Early life Maria Goretti (October 16, 1890 – July 6, 1902) is Goretti was born Maria Teresa Goretti[2] on October 16, 1890 in Corinaldo, in the Province of Ancona, then in the Kingdom of 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.[2][3][4][5][6] 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. So in 1896 or 1897, they moved to Colle Gianturco, near Paliano and Frosinone, about fifty miles outside Rome; and then in 1899 to Le Ferriere, near modern Latina and Nettuno in Lazio, where they lived in a building, “La Cascina Antica,” they shared with another family which included Giovanni Serenelli and his La Cascina Antica (right), the place of Maria’s martyrdom son, Alessandro.[3][6][7][8][9] Soon, Maria’s father Luigi became very sick with malaria, and died when Maria was just nine.[10] While her brothers, mother, and sister an Italian virgin-martyr of the Roman Catholic Church, worked in the fields, Maria would cook, sew, watch her and she is one of the youngest canonized saints.[1] She infant sister, and keep the house clean. It was a hard life, was born on the eastern side of Italy to a farming family, but the family was very close. They shared a deep love but increased poverty forced the family to move to the and faith for God. western side of the country when she was only six. Her father died when she was nine, and the family had to share a house with another family, the Serenellis. Maria took 1.2 Maria’s death over household duties from her mother, while her mother and the rest of her family worked in the fields. One after- On July 5, 1902, eleven year-old Maria was sitting on noon, Alessandro, the son of the Serenelli family, made the outside stairs of her home, sewing one of Alessan- sexual advances to her, but when she refused to submit to dro’s shirts and watching her infant sister Teresa, while him because that would be a mortal sin, he stabbed her Alessandro was threshing beans in the barnyard.[11] multiple times. She was taken to hospital, but died after Knowing she would be alone, he returned to the house forgiving him. He was promptly arrested, convicted and and threatened her with death if she did not do as he said; jailed. After three years he repented, and when eventu- he was intending to rape her. She would not submit, how- ally released from prison, he visited her mother begging ever, protesting that what he wanted to do was a mortal forgiveness, which she readily granted. He later became sin and warning Alessandro that he would go to hell.[12] a lay brother in a monastery, eventually dying peacefully She desperately fought to stop Alessandro, a 19-year-old in 1970. Maria was beatified in 1947, and canonized in farmhand, from raping her. She kept screaming, “No! It 1950. Her mother attended both ceremonies. is a sin! God does not want it! extquotedbl Alessandro 1 2 3 BEATIFICATION AND CANONIZATION first choked Maria, but when she insisted she would rather that, while in prison, Alessandro Serenelli stated that he die than submit to him, he stabbed her eleven times.[13] did not complete the assault and Maria died a physical The injured Maria tried to reach the door, but Alessan- virgin. Guerri identifies the weapon as an awl rather than dro stopped her by stabbing her three more times before a dagger.[6] running away.[14] Teresa awoke with the noise and started crying, and when Serenelli’s father and Maria’s mother came to check on 2 Serenelli’s imprisonment and re- the little girl, they found the bleeding Maria and took her to the nearest hospital in Nettuno. She underwent surgery pentance without anesthesia, but her injuries were beyond the doc- tors’ help. Halfway through the surgery, Maria woke up. Alessandro Serenelli was captured shortly after the at- She insisted that it stay that way. The pharmacist of the tack: the police taking him to prison overtook the am- hospital in which she died said to her, “Maria, think of bulance carrying Maria to hospital.[17] Originally, he was me in Paradise.” She looked at the old man: “Well, who going to be sentenced to life, but since he was a minor knows, which of us is going to be there first? extquotedbl at that time the sentence was commuted to 30 years in “You, Maria,” he replied. “Then I will gladly think of prison; judges even considered he was not as mature as you,” said Maria. Maria also expressed concern for her he was expected to be for a 20-year-old young man, and mother’s welfare.[15] The following day, 24 hours after that he grew up in a poor, neglectful family, with several the attack, having expressed forgiveness for her murderer brothers and relatives suffering from madness and an al- and stating that she wanted to have him in Heaven with coholic father.[18] It has also been suggested that it was her, Maria died of her injuries, while looking at a picture due to her mother’s plea for mercy that he was not sen- of the Virgin Mary, and clutching a cross to her chest.[16] tenced to death.[19] Alessandro insisted he had attempted to rape Maria several times and decided to kill her be- Writing in 2002 based on his own interviews with cause of her refusal and desperate crying. He remained Alessandro Serenelli and Maria’s sister Ersilia in 1952, unrepentant and uncommunicative from the world for journalist Noel Crusz provided a more detailed account: three years, until a local bishop, Monsignor Giovanni Blandini, visited him in jail. Serenelli wrote a thank you On July 5 in 1902, exactly a hundred years note to the Bishop asking for his prayers and telling him ago, at 3 p.m. whilst [Maria’s mother] As- about a dream, “in which Maria Goretti gave him lilies, sunta and the other children were at the thresh- which burned immediately in his hands.”[20] ing floor, Serenelli who persistently sought sex- ual favours from the 12-year-old [sic] girl ap- After his release, Alessandro Serenelli visited Maria’s proached her. She was taking care of her in- still-living mother, Assunta, and begged her forgiveness. fant sister in the farm house. Allesandro [sic] She forgave him, saying that if Maria had forgiven him threatened her with a 10 inch dagger, and when on her deathbed then she could not do less, and they at- Maria refused, as she had always done, he tended Mass together the next day, receiving Holy Com- stabbed her 14 times. munion side by side.[21] Alessandro reportedly prayed ev- ery day to Maria Goretti and referred to her as “my little [22] The wounds penetrated the throat, with lesions saint.” He attended her canonization in 1950. of the pericardium, the heart, the lungs and the Serenelli later became a laybrother of the Order of Friars diaphragm. Surgeons at Orsenigo were sur- Minor Capuchin, living in a monastery and working as its prised that the girl was still alive. In a dying de- receptionist and gardener until dying peacefully in 1970, position, in the presence of the Chief of Police, aged 87.[23] Maria told her mother of Serenelli’s sexual ha- rassment, and two previous attempts made to rape her. She was afraid to reveal this earlier since she was threatened with death.[6] 3 Beatification and canonization A third account of the assault was presented by Italian On the evening of the beatification ceremonies in Saint historian Giordano Bruno Guerri in 1985. He asserted Peter’s Basilica, April 27, 1947, Pope Pius XII walked 3 Pope coming, I prayed, Madonna, please help me. He put his hand on my head and said, blessed mother, happy mother, mother of a Blessed! extquotedbl They both had eyes wet with tears.[24] Three years later, on June 24, 1950, Pius XII canon- ized Goretti as a saint, the extquotedblSaint Agnes of the 20th century.”[1] Assunta was again present at the cere- mony, along with her four remaining sons and daughters. She was the first mother ever to attend the canonization ceremony of her child.[6] Alessandro Serenelli was also present at the canonization.[25][26][27] Owing to the huge crowd present, the ceremonies asso- ciated with the canonization were held outside of 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 vener- ated 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 grace of God? extquotedbl A resounding “yes” was the answer.[28] All three of her brothers would claim that she intervened miraculously in their lives. Angelo heard her voice telling him to emigrate to America.