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Maria Goretti

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Saint Maria Goretti (October 16, 1890 – July 6, 1902) is an Italian Roman Catholic virgin saint.

Maria Teresa Goretti
Virgin, Martyr
Born16 October 1890
Corinaldo, Ancona, Italy
DiedJuly 6, 1902(1902-07-06) (aged 11)
Nettuno, Lazio, Italy
Venerated inRoman Catholic Church
Canonized24 June 1950 by Pope Pius XII
Feast6 July
AttributesFourteen lilies, farmer's clothing, (occasionally) a knife
PatronageCrime victims, teenage girls, modern youth, Children of Mary

Biography

She was born as Maria Teresa Goretti [1] in Corinaldo (Province of Ancona), Italy, in 1890. She was the second child of Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini. [2] By the time she was six, her family had become so poor that they were forced to give up their farm, move, and work for other farmers. Soon, Maria's father became sick. He died when Maria was nine. [3] Her brother, mother and sisters would work in the fields and Maria would cook, sew, and keep house. It was a hard life, but the family was very close. They shared a deep love for God and the faith. She and her family moved to le Ferriere di Conca, near modern Latina, where they lived in a building they shared with another family, the Serenellis.[4]

Maria's death

On July 6 1902, finding eleven-year old Maria alone sewing, with her toddler sister, Teresa, sleeping nearby, Alessandro Serenelli attempted to force himself on the girl; however, she would not submit, protesting that what he wanted to do was a sin and warning Alessandro that he'd go to Hell if he raped her. [5] Serenelli at first choked Maria, but when she insisted she would rather die than submit to him, he stabbed her 11 times. The injured but still-living Maria tried to reach the door, so Serenelli stabbed her 3 more times before running away. [6]

Teresa awoke with the noise and started crying, and when Serenelli's father and Maria's mother came to check on the little girl, they found the bleeding Maria and took her to the nearest hospital in Nettuno. She underwent surgery without anesthesia, but her injuries were already beyond anything the doctors could do. The pharmacist of the hospital in which she died asked her, "Maria, think of me in Paradise". She looked to the old man: "Well, who knows, which of us is going to be there first". "You Maria", he replied. "Then I will gladly think of you", Maria said with a smile. [7] The following day, twenty hours after the attack, having expressed forgiveness for her murderer and stating that she wanted to have him in heaven with her, Maria died of her injuries.

Alessandro Serenelli was captured shortly after Maria's death. Originally, he was going to be sentenced to death, but since he was a minor at that time the sentence was commuted for 30 years in prison. He remained unrepentant and uncommunicative from the world, for three years, until a local bishop, Giovanni Blandini visited him in jail. Serenelli wrote a thank you note to the Bishop asking for his prayers and telling him about a dream, "in which Maria Goretti gave him lilies, which burned immediately in his hands". [8]

After his release, Serenelli went to Maria's still-living mother, Assunta, and begged her forgiveness. She forgave him, saying that if Maria had forgiven him on her deathbed then she couldn't do less, and they attended Mass together the next day, receiving Holy Communion side by side.[9]. Alessandro Serenelli reportedly prayed every day to Maria Goretti as “my little saint” [10] Serenelli became a Capuchin laybrother, living in a convent and working as its receptionist and gardener, and died peacefully in 1970.

Beatification and canonization by Pius XII

 
A statue of St. Maria Goretti in peasant garb holding lilies and a knife.

On the evening of the beatification ceremonies in Saint Peter, Pope Pius XII walked over to the mother of Maria Goretti. She almost fainted. "When I saw the Pope coming, I prayed, Madonna, please help me. He put his hand on my head and said, blessed mother, happy mother, mother of a Blessed!" They both had wet eyes. [11] On June 24, 1950, Pope Pius XII canonized Saint Maria Goretti as a virgin and martyr saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Maria's mother, nicknamed "Mamma Assunta" by her neighbors, was present at the ceremony; she was the first mother ever to attend the canonization ceremony of her child, along with her four remaining sons and daughters. Serenelli also was present at the canonization. [12] [13] [14]

Because of the huge number of visitors, the canonisation of Maria Goretti by Pope Pius XII, was held outside at Piazza San Pietro on June 24, 1950. The Pope spoke, not as before in Latin, but in Italian. "We order and declare, that the blessed Maria Goretti can be venerated as a Saint and We introduce her into the Canon of Saints". Some 500 000 people, among them a majority of youth, had come from around the World. Pope Pius asked them:

Young people, pleasure of the eyes of Jesus, are you determined to resist any attack on your chastity with the help of grace of God?

A resounding yes was the answer. [15] Saint Maria Goretti's feast day is July 6. She's represented in media as a wavy-haired young girl in farmer clothes or a white dress, with a bouquet of lilies in her hands, and is sometimes counted among the ranks of the Passionist order since her spiritual formation was guided by the Passionists.

Papal Honors for Maria Goretti

Pius XII was not the only Pope, with a high esteem for the Saint. While most saints are left to local care after canonization, Maria Goretti received two Papal visitors. September 14, 1969, Pope Paul VI visited her shrine in Nettuno and honoured Maria Goretti:

    • The value of Christian virtue is so great, so overwhelming, so imperative, that it is worth more than life. Purity is not just a separate part of our being. It belongs to our existence as a whole, it is essential for our life. Purity brings us in harmony of body an soul. [16]


Ten years later, September 1, 1979, Pope John Paul II honored Maria Goretti with a visit and spoke before thousands of faithful:

    • Maria Goretti illuminating with her spiritual beauty, challenges us to a firm and secure faith in the Word of God, as the only source of truth, to remain firm against the temptations of this world.
    • Young people, look at Maria Goretti, don’t be tempted by the tempting atmosphere of our permissive society, which declares, everything is possible. Look to Maria Goretti, love, live, defend your chastity.
    • Young people, don’t be afraid to carry the torch of your life, light and ideals into modern society. [17]


Controversy

Some members of the feminist movement have criticized the veneration of Maria Goretti and other "martyrs of chastity" (like Blessed Pierina Morosini, Blessed Karolina Kózkówna aka the "Maria Goretti of Poland" and Blessed Albertina Berkenbrock), on the grounds that the Church reinforces misogyny, sexism and physical/psychological violence against women through:

  • support of the "better dead than raped" adage;
  • the stigmatization of women who either have survived rape attempts or who have chosen to live sexually "liberated" lives;
  • the equation of rape with sexual enjoyment and the cardinal sin of lust.

According to them, this phenomenon as a whole shows how rape is both "eroticized and normalized in patriarchy." [18] [19]

However, in rural Italy at the middle of last century, rape was still a popular and "honorable" means to "get" and marry the girl of choice. After such a crime, nobody else would marry the raped young women. With the canonization of Maria Goretti before 500000 people, the media attention to the canonization, the consequent popularity of the Saint, and emerging Maria Goretti Fan Clubs, Pope Pius XII ostracized this awful tradition, and quite possibly contributed to its disappearance. In addition, according to her defenders, St. Maria Goretti is not venerated because of the situation that caused her death itself, but for "her heroic virtue, her faith, unwillingness to sin, and desire to forgive her perpetrator", all of this ultimately leading to Serenelli's redemption, which is still advocated against death penalty.

The Pennsylvania law that states (or stated) that rape victims must prove their physical resistance to rape so their rapists can be prosecuted is unofficially called the "St. Maria Goretti law". [20]

In 1985, the journalist Giordano Bruno Guerri wrote Povera Santa, povero assassino: la vera storia di Maria Goretti (Poor saint, poor murderer: the true story of Maria Goretti), a biography of Maria where he claims that her beatification process was more of a publicity stunt to protest for the sexual conduct of the USA troops stationed in Italy after WWII and questioned Alessandro and Maria's true roles in the story. [21]

Places named after Maria Goretti

  • Santa Maria Goretti Secondary School in Tarxien, Malta
  • St. Maria Goretti Elementary School in Arlington, TX
  • Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Scottsdale, AZ.
  • Saint Maria Goretti Elementary School in Long Beach, CA.
  • Saint Maria Goretti Catholic Primary School in Preston, Lancashire, England.

Bibliography

    • Vinzenz Ruef, Die Wahre Geschichte von der hl. Maria Goretti, Miriam, Jestetten, 1992, ISBN 3-87499-101-3

Notes

  1. ^ Vinzenz Ruef, Die Wahre Geschichte von der hl. Maria Goretti, Miriam, Jestetten, 1992, ISBN 3-87499-101-3 p.12
  2. ^ Ruef, 12
  3. ^ Ruef, 21
  4. ^ Ruef, 20
  5. ^ Ruef, 46
  6. ^ Ruef, 44
  7. ^ Ruef, 54
  8. ^ Ruef, 87
  9. ^ Ruef, 88
  10. ^ Ruef, 88-91
  11. ^ Ruef, 67
  12. ^ [1]
  13. ^ [2]
  14. ^ http://catholicism.about.com/cs/saints/a/mariagoretti.htm]
  15. ^ Ruef, 71
  16. ^ Ruef, 74
  17. ^ Ruef, 76
  18. ^ Better Dead Than R(Ap)Ed?: The Patriarchal Rhetoric Driving Capital Rape Statutes | St. John'S Law Review | Find Articles At Bnet.Com
  19. ^ Adland, Sara R. (2006) (thesis), Haverford College.Maria Goretti: An Icon of Virginity, An Icon of Silence, An Opportunity for Change.
  20. ^ [3]
  21. ^ [4]
 
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