Maria Goretti

Biography Maria was born on 16 October 1890, in Corinaldo, in the Province of Ancona, then in the Kingdom of Italy, to Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini, the third of seven children: Antonio (who died in infancy), Angelo, Maria, Mariano (Marino), Alessandro (Sandrino), Ersilia, and Teresa.

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. In 1896, they moved to Colle Gianturco, near Paliano and Frosinone, about fifty miles outside Rome; and then in 1899 to Le Ferriere, near modern Latina and Nettuno in Lazio, where they lived in a building, "La Cascina Antica," they shared with another family which included Giovanni Serenelli and his son, Alessandro. Soon, her father became very sick with malaria, and died when she was just nine. At the time of the crime, capital punishment for ordinary crimes had already been abolished in Italy under the Penal Code of 1889, and therefore a death sentence was not legally possible in Serenelli's case. He insisted he had attempted to rape her several times and decided to kill her because of her refusal and desperate crying. He remained unrepentant and uncommunicative from the world for three years, until a local 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."

Beatification and canonization

Maria's major relics on display at St. Joseph Cathedral (Columbus, Ohio) Maria was beatified on 27 April 1947. In attendance at the ceremony were both Assunta and Pope Pius XII. On the evening of the ceremony in Saint Peter's Basilica, the Pope walked over to and greeted Assunta. She later reported, "When I saw the Pope coming, I prayed, 'Madonna, please help me', and I felt faint. He put his hand on my head and said, 'Blessed mother, happy mother, mother of a Blessed!'" Afterward, both could be seen with eyes wet with tears. Despite what the popular press reported, Alessandro was not present for either the beatification or canonization. He and the friars decided, to avoid distracting from the ceremony, that it was best for him not to attend.

Owing to the huge crowd present, the ceremonies associated with the canonization were held outside Saint Peter's Basilica, in the Piazza San Pietro. Pius XII 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. 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 the grace of God?" A resounding "yes" was the answer.

Feast day

Maria's feast day, celebrated on 6 July, was inserted in the General Roman Calendar when it was revised in 1969. She is the patroness saint of chastity, rape victims, girls, youth, teenage girls, poverty, purity, and forgiveness.

In art Maria is represented in art as a wavy-haired young girl in farmer's clothes or a white dress, with a bouquet of lilies in her hands, and she is counted among the ranks of the Passionist order since her spiritual formation was guided by the Passionists who were also the postulators of her cause for sainthood. Both lilies and white garments are traditional icons of virginity in Catholic iconography.

There is a statue in front of St. Maria Goretti High School, located at 11th and Moore Streets in South Philadelphia. The statue was erected in 1955. The school, once all-girls, has since merged with local, all-boys high school, St. John Neumann. It is now co-ed and known as Neumann-Goretti High School.

In media A large Catholic elementary school with over 1000 pupils in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is named in her honor. Heaven over the Marshes (Cielo sulla palude) is an Italian film based on Maria's life, filmed in 1949 and directed by Augusto Genina. Ines Orsini plays her, and Mauro Matteuci plays Alessandro. It was awarded a prize at the 10th International Exhibition of Cinema Art at Venice in 1949, as the one which contributed most to the spiritual and moral betterment of mankind.

In 2003, Maria Goretti, a RAI Italian TV movie directed by Giulio Base, starring Martina Pinto as Maria, was acclaimed by critics.