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The saints

St. Maria Goretti

An eleven-year-old who forgave the young man who killed her, and he came to her canonization.

Feast: 6 July · 1890 to 1902 · The modern era · Corinaldo and Nettuno, Italy

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Old black-and-white photograph of a girl in an apron standing outdoors between a man and a boy.

Unknown author, 1902. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Maria Goretti

Le Ferriere, near Nettuno, 1902

Maria was a poor farm girl whose family shared a house with another family, the Serenellis.1

Their son Alessandro, almost twenty, tried to force himself on her.1

She refused and told him it was a sin, and he stabbed her many times.

Patron of young people and teenagers1

01St. Maria Goretti

I forgive him

Before she died the next day, she said she forgave him and wanted him with her in heaven.1

In prison Alessandro had a dream of her, repented, and later begged her mother’s forgiveness.1

Years later he knelt among the crowd at her canonization.1

Live it this week

Forgive the unforgivable, one step

Maria forgave a man who killed her. If there is someone you can’t forgive yet, take one step this week: pray one Hail Mary for them every day, even through clenched teeth.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Maria Goretti”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.