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Maria Goretti: Little saint of great mercy

Mary Stachyra Lopez | Catholic Herald

A visitor prays before the major relics of St. Maria Goretti, encased in wax and resting inside a glass casket at St. Veronica Church in Chantilly Oct. 22. The relics arrived at the church as part of a year-long “Pilgrimage of Mercy” across the U.S.

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Rays of the sunrise broke through the trees as a half-dozen
men carefully lifted a heavy glass and gold casket over their
heads outside St. Veronica Church in Chantilly Oct. 22.
Inside the casket, slowly lowered from a large van, were the
relics of 11-year-old St. Maria Goretti, covered with a waxen
mask and resting serenely on a red velvet pillow.

A few dozen volunteers and eager pilgrims holding candles
first watched in silence, then sang “Salve Regina” as the
casket was wheeled into the building. By the end of the day,
an estimated 7,000 people had knelt before the relics and
pressed their hands against the glass separating the saint
from the sinners.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be that close to
the youngest (canonized) saint,” said Jill Bender, a St.
Veronica parishioner who brought her 10- and 9-year-old
children to venerate the relics. “I have young children, so
it means a lot.”

St. Veronica hosted the major relics of St. Maria Goretti,
who was stabbed to death by an attempted rapist, for one full
day as part of a yearlong “Pilgrimage of Mercy” across the
United States. The Holy See hopes that her message of
forgiveness, and the story of her attacker’s remarkable
conversion, will resonate with modern-day pilgrims during the
Jubilee Year of Mercy that will begin Dec. 8.

A horrific attack

By age 11, Maria Goretti’s faith already had helped her
through the death of her sharecropper father two years
earlier. Maria’s mother, Assunta, was left to support the
family by toiling in the fields outside Nettuno, Italy, with
their neighbors, Giovanni Serenelli and his son Alessandro.
Maria became a second mother to her five siblings, caring for
them like her own.

“She got up before anyone else. She made sure that food was
on the table. She was so serious that people used to
call her ‘the little old woman,’ ” said Companions of the
Cross Father Carlos Martins, who organized the pilgrimage
through his “Treasures of the Church” relics ministry.

But Maria’s greatest troubles were sexual advances from
Alessandro, who was nine years her senior. Embarrassed, she
kept his lewd remarks a secret.

On July 6, 1902, Alessandro unexpectedly came back early from
the fields. His advances became violent. Little Maria fought
back so fiercely, screaming at Alessandro that what he wanted
was a sin, that he was unable to complete the attack.
Enraged, Alessandro drew a knife and stabbed her 14 times.


Buy photos from this event.

The power of forgiveness

Maria was taken to the hospital, where a priest asked her if
she would forgive her attacker. “I forgive Alessandro
Serenelli … and I want him with me in heaven forever,” she
said. Shortly afterward, Maria died.

Her attacker was unmoved. Sentenced to 30 years in prison,
Alessandro blamed Maria for everything that happened. His
behavior was so bad that he wasn’t allowed to mix with other
inmates.

Six years into his sentence, he changed radically, almost
overnight. Alessandro said that he had a vision of Maria, who
offered him 14 white lilies — one for each of the stab
wounds.

“His conversion was so dramatic that they wanted to release
him after 13 years, but he refused,” Father Martins said,
explaining that Alessandro wanted to take responsibility by
serving the remainder of his sentence. “After 27 years, they
didn’t give him a choice.”

Five years after his release, Alessandro sought out Assunta
and asked forgiveness for the murder of her daughter. Life
had not been kind to her. After the murder, there was no one
to fill Maria’s place running the household, and Assunta
could not fulfill her agreement with the landlord. The same
week her daughter was killed, Assunta had to give up all five
of her remaining children for adoption.

“Alessandro did not just murder her little girl,” Father
Martins said. “He destroyed her whole family.”

Yet, inspired by her daughter’s example, not only did Assunta
say that she forgave Alessandro, from that day on she
referred to him as ‘my son.’ Alessandro eventually joined the
Capuchin order, where he spent the rest of his life in prayer
and penance.

Saint for the modern age

St. Maria Goretti’s story has resonated enough to draw
thousands of people, like the ones at St. Veronica, to make a
pilgrimage to the saint’s relics.

“She speaks precisely to the message of mercy which Pope
Francis is trying to disseminate and remind the world about.
To committers of crime, people who have baggage in their
lives. She speaks to them that mercy is attainable
and it’s offered by the Lord,” Father Martins said. “To
victims, it’s an empowerment that they no longer need to
identify themselves as a victim. Through Christ, they cease
being a victim.”

Marjorie LaVigne, a St. Veronica parishioner who watched the
casket being carried inside, agreed.

“It’s one thing to say you forgive someone,” LaVigne said.
“But to say that you want them to be with you afterward in
the Lord’s presence — it feels like another level of
forgiveness.”

Stachyra Lopez can be reached at
[email protected].

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