Maria Goretti was born on October 16, 1890, in Italy.
By the time Maria was five, her family had become so poor that they were forced to give up their farm, move, and work for other farmers, where they lived in a house that they shared with another family (the Serenellis).
On July 5, 1902, eleven-year-old Maria was sitting on the outside steps of her home, while a young man named Alessandro was close by. Knowing she would be alone, he returned to the house and threatened her with a knife if she did not do what he said; he was intending to rape her. She would not submit, however, protesting that what he wanted to do was a mortal sin and warning him that he would go to Hell.
She fought desperately, and he stabbed her numerous times.
The following day, Maria forgave Alessandro and said that she wanted to have him in Heaven with her, then she died of her injuries.
Alessandro was captured and sentenced to to 30 years in prison.
A bishop, Monsignor Giovanni Blandini, visited him in jail. He wrote a thank you note to the Bishop asking for his prayers and telling him about a dream, “in which Maria gave him lilies, which burned immediately in his hands.”
After his release, Alessandro visited Maria’s mother and begged her forgiveness. She forgave him, saying that if Maria had forgiven him on her death bed then she could not do less, and they attended Mass together the next day, receiving Holy Communion side by side.
He reportedly prayed to her every day and referred to her as “my little saint.” He attended her canonization in 1950.
Alessandro later became a lay brother of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, living in a monastery and working as its receptionist and gardener until he died peacefully in 1970 at age 87.
St. Maria Goretti is the patron saint of chastity, rape victims, girls, youth, teenage girls, poverty, purity and forgiveness.