Vatican City, Jul 6, 2016 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis has marked the feast of the young martyr St. Maria Goretti by calling the faithful to follow her example and be forgiving to those who wrong them.
The memory of Maria Goretti's example should “encourage you to commit yourselves, like the Saint you venerate, to being witnesses of forgiveness,” the Pope wrote in a letter for the July 6 feast of the Italian who is known for having forgiven her attacker.
The June 20 letter was addressed to Bishops Mariano Crociata of Latina-Terracina-Sezze-Priverno and Marcello Semeraro of Albano, the dioceses of the regions where Maria Goretti – who is even now affectionately known as “Marietta” – lived and died.
The young saint, who was killed at age 11 while resisting a rape, is renowned both as a martyr for chastity and as a witness of forgiveness: as Maria lay dying from wounds inflicted by her would-be rapist, Alessandro Serenelli, she prayed for his conversion.
Lauding Maria Goretti's ability to forgive her attacker as she lay dying, Francis quoted the 2015 Bull of Indiction for the Year of Mercy, saying: “At times how hard it seems to forgive! And yet pardon is the instrument placed into our fragile hands to attain serenity of heart.”
This “generous offer of forgiveness,” he said, accompanied “the peaceful death of the young Marietta,” establishing for her killer the “sincere journey of conversion which, in the end, led him to taste the faithful abandonment in the arms of his merciful Father.”
Francis cited Maria Goretti's “intensity of love for the Eucharistic Jesus,” which led to her having the strength to make the “fundamental choice of her brief existence,” the Pope said, in reference to her martyrdom.
Born in the city of Corinaldo, Italy in 1890, St. Maria Goretti was the third of seven children. Poverty forced the family to relocate, and they ultimately settled in a town just outside of Nettuno.
The earth was “fertile but insidious because of malaria,” the Pope said, referring to death of Maria Goretti's father when she was six.
“The family lived this situation with dignity,” the Pope said, recalling how, after her father's death, Maria assisted her mother in housework and in caring for her younger siblings.
In 1902, Maria was stabbed 14 times when Serenelli, then a neighboring farmhand who had made previous inappropriate comments and sexual advances toward her, attempted to rape her. She died in hospital in the nearby town of Nettuno.
While in prison several years later, Alessandro converted after having a dream in which Maria handed him 14 white flowers that burst into flame. The flowers represented the 14 wounds he had inflicted upon her; the flames symbolized forgiveness. After being released from prison he became a Capuchin tertiary and attended Maria’s beatification alongside her mother.
In the letter, Pope Francis also compared the trials experienced by the Goretti family with those faced by families today, such as poverty and forced migration.
“Poverty and the urgent need for work pushed the Goretti to immigrate from their native Corinaldo,” the Pope said.
Francis compared the “tears and poverty” which accompanied the Goretti family's migration to the journeys made by families for “the most varied reasons,” including poverty.
“It is a situation which makes us feel every closer to this girl,” the Pope reflected.
Article Archive
Saint Maria Goretti calls us to be 'witnesses of forgiveness'
Related Articles • More Articles
Families, donors, and others gather with Bishop Erik Pohlmeier for the dedication of the "Precious Ones Baby Mausoleum" at the San Lorenzo Cemetery in St. Augustine, Florida, on April 23, 2024. / Credit: Fran Ruchalski/courtesy of the Archdiocese of St. AugustineCNA Staff, Apr 26, 2024 / 09:51 am (CNA).Families gathered with St. Augustine Bishop Erik Pohlmeier on a sunny Tuesday this week for the dedication of the "Precious Ones Baby Mausoleum" at the city's San Lorenzo Cemetery.Six years in the making, the 44,000-pound granite mausoleum is designed for babies lost at a young age through miscarriage, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), or stillborn births. A brick walkway marked by a charcoal cross leads up to the brilliant white mausoleum, which is full of burial spaces that are ready to honor little ones. Miscarriages are common events, and women often suffer through them quietly, one 2018 study found. About 10% to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, usually be...
Kennedy opened up to veteran EWTN News anchorman Raymond Arroyo about his family's strong faith growing up, how his faith helped him overcome drug addiction and how it impacts him in his day-to-day life in the travails of U.S. presidential politics. / Credit: EWTN News "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo" / ScreenshotWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 26, 2024 / 06:30 am (CNA).Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. discussed the importance of his Catholic faith in his daily life, his plan to reduce abortions without federal restrictions, and his opposition to biological males playing in women's sports during an exclusive interview on "The World Over with Raymond Arroyo" Thursday night.Kennedy, son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, is running a vigorous independent campaign to be the next president of the United States. He launched an independent bid for the White House last October after initially challeng...
Pope Francis prays during his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on April 24, 2024. / Credit: Vatican MediaACI Prensa Staff, Apr 25, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).Asked during a new interview if he has any message for Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who instigated the war in Ukraine, Pope Francis stated that "a negotiated peace is better than an endless war."CBS News broadcast some excerpts April 24 from a new interview conducted by journalist Norah O'Donnell with Pope Francis at St. Martha House, the pontiff's residence in the Vatican.During the exchange, the full version of which will be released on May 19, the Holy Father reflected on world conflicts and especially on the suffering of children during wars.O'Donnell asked the Holy Father if he had any message for Vladimir Putin regarding Ukraine, to which the pontiff replied: "Please, countries at war, all of them... Stop the war. Seek to negotiate. Seek peace. A negotiated peace is better than an e...