The Feast Day of St. Maria Goretti is ~ 6th July
Called the St. Agnes of the 20th century, this modern Martyr of purity was born the third of seven children of a farm labourer at Corinaldo in the Italian Province of Marche. Never able to attend school, she did, however, receive a thorough grounding in Christian virtue from her devout though illiterate mother, Assunta, who, among other things, taught her the catechism of the catholic church from memory. When Maria was 9, her family moved to Nettuno near Rome for reasons of employment; the year following, her father Luigi died. Maria thenceforth took even more complete charge of the household , including smaller children, while her mother went out to labour in the employer’s farm.
When 11, Maria made her long-desired First Communion after having attended special spiritual exercises in preparation, which left a profound impression on her. She had always been a model of obedience, of modesty and of purity, and had an innate horror of offending Jesus by any sin. But now she redoubled her efforts to please her Lord and to be helpful to everyone. Going to confession involved a seven mile walk each way, but Maria counted that as nothing when it concerned fulfilling a spiritual obligation.
An evil-minded young farm-hand, whose family was quartered in the same building, thrice attempted to seduce the young Maria, and when she resolutely rejected all his advances, stabbed her innumerable times in desperate fury. Maria died a resigned and holy death the following day 6th July 1902 having, at her Confessor’s urging , pardoned her assailant and prayed for his conversion. The latter barely escaped being lynched by the townsfolk but had to spend 29 years in prison, during which time he experienced a complete metanoia through a vision he had of a little martyr.
Maria’s aged and partly paralyzed mother, as well as the assailant himself had the unique privilege of being present at her canonization on 25th June 1950, an event which attracted such enormous Holy year crowds, that even St. Peter’s Basilica, huge as it is , could not contain them and the ceremony had, for the first time in history, to be held in open square in front.
Reflection: ” The message which emerges from the story of Maria Goretti is one concerning personal dignity at the simple human level, which must be defended against every ruse and every violence, and it is one which concerns consecration of one’s energies, to the Lord and to the Church, in radical obedience to God’s law”. (John Paul II)