Maria was born on 16 October 1890, in the central Italian village of Corinaldo. Her parents, Luigi and Assunta, were farmers. It was nothing special about child Maria. Like all other children, she used to pray.
During that time, life in Italy was very difficult. Their economic situation became very bad at that time. Hence Maria’s family was forced to migrate. Maria’s father, Luigi, had acquaintances in the area known as the Agro Romano in the region of Lazio. Had he known of the tragic fate that awaited him and his family, surely he would have made a different choice.
In fact, it was during their first stint in a township called Palliano that the Goretti family came into contact with a father and son. The Serenellis were also from the Marches region. Perhaps their background in common or Luigi’s dire need to work with other men in the fields caused him to avoid assessing their characters. At any rate, ever more precarious conditions forced the two families to emigrate even farther from their homeland – to the notorious area south of Rome: the Pontine Marshes.
The name itself conjured images akin to the Wild West in the United States. The Pontine Marshes were known as badlands where lawlessness and banditry went unchecked. Perhaps worse still, its elevation below sea level rendered it swampy making it a haven for the spread of the dreaded malaria.
Indeed, two years after the family arrived, Luigi fell victim to the disease and died. Maria’s mother, Assunta, was left to care for her five children alone and assume her husband’s work in the fields. Maria, the oldest of the girls, gladly took over the household chores.
Assunta never trusted either of the Serenelli men – the father was a drunkard and Alessandro often went out at night carousing. After Luigi’s death, their personalities changed for the worse. The father and son began drinking more, fighting, and cursing in front of the children. Worse, they became predatory. While the father made advances toward Assunta, Alessandro did so toward Maria.
In 1902, when Maria was 12 and Alessandro was 20, it happened three times. The first two times, Maria resisted his assault and he went away. The third time, however, Alessandro had made up his mind what he would do if she opposed him again. When she continued to resist his sexual assault, he became enraged. Alessandro Serenelli stabbed Maria Goretti 14 times in the abdomen and torso. He later testified that he did so, “as you do when you beat corn.”
Maria was taken by horse and carriage to a hospital in Nettuno. Her time of agony was long 20 hours. The doctors could not do much for her. All the while she was concerned for the state of Alessandro’s soul, and continually cried out, “Why? Alessandro? Why? You’ll go to Hell!”
A priest was called and Maria received the Last Rites. She died the next day, July 6, 1902, of septic peritonitis and internal bleeding. The story of this young “martyr and saint” spread through the city of Nettuno, then through the region.
Alessandro was sentenced to 30 years of imprisonment. For the first three years, he was unrepentant. But later he had a vision. Maria Goretti appeared to him in a dream. She was picking flowers from a basket and dropping them on the ground. This initiated a dramatic conversion in Alessandro. After serving 27 years, he was released. His first act was to go to Maria’s mother, Assunta, and ask her to forgive him. She did so. He later became a lay associate in a Capuchin Franciscan friary where he worked as a gardener and handyman. He died there in 1970.
Maria was beatified in 1947 and canonized in 1950. Her mother and siblings attended both ceremonies in Rome.
Maria Goretti is the Patron Saint of chastity, teenage girls, youth, victims of rape, and forgiveness. Her feast is celebrated on 6 July.