What a week ahead! We have the feast of St Elizabeth of Portugal on Tuesday the 8th July, St Maria Goretti and Saint Thomas More on Wednesday the 9th July, then we have St Benedict and St Pius I on Friday the 11th July.
Although due to my personal love for St Maria Goretti and her readiness to forgive, I have decided that she is the YCM’s Saint of the Week.
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Saint Maria Goretti
Feast Day: 6th July (traditional), 9th July (new)
Patronage: Rape victims and youths
Saint Maria Goretti, the Italian virgin-martyr, is one of the youngest canonised Saints. Maria was born in Ancona, Italy 1890. After her father had died of malaria her mother had great difficulties feeding her children. Maria was a saint of great forgiveness. When she was still quite young, her neighbour, Alexander, grabbed her a attempted to rape her. Maria told him she would rather die than give up her purity, so he began to brutally stab her. Whilst in hospital, before she died, Maria forgave her killer.
After Maria had died, Alexander was sentenced to thirty years imprisonment. He showed no remorse. Until he had a dream of Maria, where she gave him flowers. After the dream Alexander seeked further forgiveness from Maria’s mother and repented for his sins. He became a changed man. Maria cared about the future and forgiveness of her killer even once she had died.
She was cannoised in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. He proclaimed her a model of purity for all youth.
At the canonisation of Saint Maria Goretti standing next to her mother, was her killer Alexander. Maria’s forgiveness was truly a miracle. She showed an amazing selfless love in her ability to forgive. To me, this saint demonstrates a portion of the forgiveness God gives us. Which is a truly amazing concept to meditate upon.
Saint Maria Goretti, pray for us.
Originally posted 2014-07-08 11:54:55.