St. Maria Goretti: Model of Purity and Forgiveness

Today is the Feast Day of St. Maria Goretti.  Maria is fairly well known in our day and I highly recommend seeking her intercession, especially for youth who may be struggling with embracing chastity.  Maria was only 11 years old when she died in 1902 after a young farm hand named Alessandro Serenelli attacked her with lustful intentions.  He ended up stabbing her many times; wounds which ultimately caused her death.  On her deathbed she spoke words of forgiveness for her attacker.  She is often depicted with lilies and a palm branch; the lilies symbolize her purity and the palm branch symbolizes her martyrdom.  

Alessandro was sent to prison for his crime and during his time there Maria appeared to him with lilies.  This experience was powerful for Alessandro who reformed his ways and upon his release from prison went to live with Capuchin friars until his death in 1970.  Maria was canonized in 1950 in Rome.  Maria's mother was accompanied by Alessandro at the canonization.  The story of Maria and Alessandro is an amazing story of purity, forgiveness, conversion and redemption. The redeeming power of Christ can change even the hardest of hearts. 

Alessandro himself gives testimony to the harmful effects of much of what the world continues to struggle with (and even on a grander scale today) when he wrote the following: "My behavior was influenced by print, mass-media and bad examples which are followed by the majority of young people without even thinking."  As the saying goes, "garbage in, garbage out".  What we watch, listen to, who we look up to, has a profound effect on who we become and the vices or virtues that we practice.  The content of much of our entertainment has become filled with degrading material and the pornography business rakes in billions. But while there is much to fight, there is also much to be hopeful about. 

God is more powerful than our sins, our failings or our disappointments.  A renewal in the life of the family and the Church is happening and as a renewal in the family and the Church happens a renewal in society happens.  Just as when the family is broken, the sociey is broken; when the family is renewed, the society is renewed.  God always sends us what we need when we need it.  Bl. John Paul the Great's Theology of the Body is playing a major role in this renewal as well as Pope Benedict's efforts regarding the liturgy and unity.  Be of good cheer - God knows what He's doing and He is still in control!  Continue to pray for the virtues of chastity, temperance and fortitude.  When you show the world the joy that you experience from embracing a life of chastity you become a witness of redemption and through you God gives others grace to experience that same joy - just like St. Maria Goretti.  Will you be the saint He has made you to be?

Read more about St. Maria Goretti here.