Today is the Feast Day of Saint Maria Goretti, one of the youngest Saints in the Catholic Church.
St.Maria was 11 years old when she was raped and murdered by 20 year old Allessandro Serenelli. While he was attacking her, St Maria urged him to stop, as what he was doing would be a moral sin, and would send him to hell. She was stabbed 11 times after saying she would rather die than submit her body to him, and then another 3 times as she tried to escape. She was taken to a hospital where she succumbed to her wounds, but not before saying she forgave Alessandro.
Alessandro was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for his crime. While imprisoned he received a vision of St Maria stating she forgave him and urging a life of repentance. Alessandro repented, and after being released from prison visited St Maria's mother and asked for forgiveness, which she granted. Alessandro would join a Franciscan monastery and lived out his life as a lay brother. In 1950 he was present for the canonization of St.Maria along with the rest of her family.
He died in 1970 and in his will was a letter stating the following:
St.Maria was 11 years old when she was raped and murdered by 20 year old Allessandro Serenelli. While he was attacking her, St Maria urged him to stop, as what he was doing would be a moral sin, and would send him to hell. She was stabbed 11 times after saying she would rather die than submit her body to him, and then another 3 times as she tried to escape. She was taken to a hospital where she succumbed to her wounds, but not before saying she forgave Alessandro.
Alessandro was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for his crime. While imprisoned he received a vision of St Maria stating she forgave him and urging a life of repentance. Alessandro repented, and after being released from prison visited St Maria's mother and asked for forgiveness, which she granted. Alessandro would join a Franciscan monastery and lived out his life as a lay brother. In 1950 he was present for the canonization of St.Maria along with the rest of her family.
He died in 1970 and in his will was a letter stating the following:
Quote:
I am nearly 80 years old. I am about to die.
Looking back at my past, I can see that in my early youth, I chose a bad path which led me to ruin myself.
My behavior was influenced by print, mass media and bad examples which are followed by the majority of young people without even thinking. And I did the same. I was not worried.
There were a lot of generous and devoted people who surrounded me, but I paid no attention to them because a violent force blinded me and pushed me toward a wrong way of life.
When I was 20 years old, I committed a crime of passion. Now, that memory represents something horrible for me. Maria Goretti, now a Saint, was my good Angel, sent to me by Providence to guide and save me. I still have impressed upon my heart her words of rebuke and of pardon. She prayed for me, she interceded for her murderer. Thirty years of prison followed.
If I had been of age, I would have spent all my life in prison. I accepted to be condemned because it was my own fault.
Little Maria was really my light, my protectress; with her help, I behaved well during the 27 years of prison and tried to live honestly when I was again accepted among the members of society. The Brothers of St. Francis, Capuchins from the Marche, welcomed me with angelic charity into their monastery as a brother, not as a servant. I have been living with their community for 24 years, and now I am serenely waiting to witness the vision of God, to hug my loved ones again, and to be next to my Guardian Angel and her dear mother, Assunta.
I hope this letter that I have written can teach others the happy lesson of avoiding evil and of always following the right path, like little children. I feel that religion with its precepts is not something we can live without, but rather it is the real comfort, the real strength in life and the only safe way in every circumstance, even the most painful ones of life.
Alessandro Serenelli, May 5, 1961
