English: Painting of Maria Goretti. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Click here for today’s Scripture readings.
Am 8:4-6, 9-12
Mt 9:9-13
St Maria Goretti, Patron of Rape Victims
Today we celebrate the feast of St Maria Goretti, a little Italian girl, only 12 years old who preferred death to committing a mortal sin. On July 5, 1902, while she was at home taking care of her infant sister, 19-year old Alessandro Serenelli propositioned her to have sex with him. When she refused, as she had always done, he stabbed her 14 times and attempted to rape her. Years later, while serving a 30-year sentence for the crime, he confessed that he did not complete the assault and Maria died a physical virgin. All the time he was stabbing her, she kept crying out, “No Alessandro, it is a sin”. He fled the scene and left her bleeding profusely. Before Maria died, she expressed forgiveness for her murderer and prayed for the salvation of his soul.
Serenelli was captured shortly after Maria’s death. He would have received a life-long sentence, but since he was a minor, it was commuted to 30 years. He remained unrepentant until he had a dream, “in which Maria gave him lilies, which burned immediately in his hands.”
After his release, he begged forgiveness of Maria’s still-living mother, who told him that if Maria had forgiven him on her deathbed, she could not do less, and they attended Mass together the next day, receiving Holy Communion side by side. Alessandro reportedly prayed every day to Maria Goretti and referred to her as “my little saint.” He even attended her canonization in 1950.
Serenelli later became a Capuchin Brother and lived a life of prayer and penance until his death in 1970.
In a society in which the sexual abuse of minors is a daily on-going tragedy and in our Church where such sexual abuse by priests has been a recurring scandal, today’s feast is an indictment of all of us if we relent in our efforts to protect the most vulnerable members of our communities. Saint Maria Goretti, pray for us.
- Fr. Damian Towey, CP is a member of the community at Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center,North Palm Beach,Florida.
Maria Goretti’s story bears so many hallmarks of today’s crisis in that the danger did not come from a stranger but someone close at hand. We all need to help our young people be safe from a culture which selfishly and greedily heightens the tensions between “tweens”, rather than supports them in their important transitions of maturity.
Thanks a lot for the comprehensive reflections of St. Maria Goretti and Alessandro!
Thanks for forcing yet more women away from the church by projecting your own hatred of raped women on to Goretti. She never said or did anything to demonstrate that she “chose” death, and she was never at any time in any position to commit mortal sin. Even if she had not fought back and been raped, she still would have been pure and without any kind of sin, by any sane person’s definition. The perversion of the Goretti story by misogynists is sickening, and you just perpetuated it. Congratulations.
Hi Kell,
Thanks for your comment.
I am the editor of this blog, not the author of the post on Maria Goretti and I am a woman. I have always had a lot of difficulty with the story of Maria Goretti myself. Too often hagiography regarding Maria Goretti suggests that she would have been better off dead than to be raped and survive.
The author of this post is not saying that. Maria Goretti did try to stop Alessandro saying, “No Alessandro, it is a sin.” Perhaps she was trying to stop Alessandro from committing the sin of rape. I hope that she herself knew that she was doing nothing wrong.
The really extraordinary thing about Maria Goretti from my perspective is that she forgave Alessandro. I am not sure that I would be able to do the same.
Finally, if you read the last paragraph of this post I think it is clear whose side the author is on.
“In a society in which the sexual abuse of minors is a daily on-going tragedy and in our Church where such sexual abuse by priests has been a recurring scandal, today’s feast is an indictment of all of us if we relent in our efforts to protect the most vulnerable members of our communities. Saint Maria Goretti, pray for us.”
Thanks again for commenting and blessings on your day.