Maria Goretti

Life events

1. Born — 1890

   Maria Teresa Goretti was born on 16 October 1890 in Corinaldo, in the Province of Ancona, Kingdom of Italy, the third of seven children of Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini.

2. Other — 1899

   After years of poverty forcing multiple relocations, the Goretti family settled at Le Ferriere near modern Latina and Nettuno in Lazio, sharing the farmhouse 'La Cascina Antica' with the Serenelli family. Luigi Goretti died of malaria shortly thereafter, leaving Maria, aged nine, to manage the household while her mother and siblings worked in the fields.

3. Martyred — 1902

   On 5 July 1902, Alessandro Serenelli, the 20-year-old son of the family sharing the farmhouse, attacked Maria when she was alone, threatening her with an awl and demanding she submit to him. She refused, protesting it would be a mortal sin; he stabbed her fourteen times. Taken to the hospital at Nettuno, she underwent surgery without anesthesia and died of her injuries on 6 July 1902, having explicitly forgiven Alessandro and expressed the wish to meet him in heaven.

4. Other — 1928

   After his release from prison in approximately 1929 following a 27-year sentence, Alessandro Serenelli visited Maria's mother Assunta to beg forgiveness. She granted it, and the two received Holy Communion together at Mass the following day. Alessandro later became a lay brother in a Capuchin monastery, working as its receptionist and gardener until his death in 1970 at age 87.

5. Other — 1947

   Maria was beatified on 27 April 1947 by Pope Pius XII in a ceremony at Saint Peter's Basilica. Her mother Assunta was present; the Pope greeted her personally, saying 'Blessed mother, happy mother, mother of a Blessed.'

6. Other — 1950

   On 24 June 1950, Pope Pius XII canonized Maria Goretti in the Piazza San Pietro before approximately 500,000 people, calling her 'the Saint Agnes of the 20th century.' Assunta and her four surviving children attended; the canonization was the first held outdoors in modern times, and Pius XII addressed the crowd in Italian rather than the customary Latin.

7. Translated — 1950

   Maria's remains are enshrined in the crypt of the Passionist Basilica of Nostra Signora delle Grazie e Santa Maria Goretti in Nettuno, south of Rome. Her skeletal remains rest inside a wax effigy within a glass casket — a display that has sometimes been mistaken for an incorrupt body.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Alessandro Serenelli, while in prison, reported a dream in which Maria gave him lilies that burned in his hands; Bishop Giovanni Blandini's visit prompted this repentance after three years of total silence. (likely)
• Maria is counted among the ranks of the Passionist order; her spiritual formation was guided by Passionist priests, who also served as postulators of her cause for sainthood. Her remains are enshrined in a Passionist basilica in Nettuno. (likely)
• In art, Maria is depicted as a young girl in farmer's clothes or a white dress holding a bouquet of lilies — both white garments and lilies being traditional Catholic iconographic symbols of virginity. (likely)
• Maria's mother Assunta Carlini Goretti attended both the 1947 beatification and the 1950 canonization — among the very few mothers in Church history to witness their child's elevation to sainthood within their own lifetime. (certain)
• In a dying deposition made in the presence of the Chief of Police, Maria revealed that Alessandro had harassed and twice previously attempted to assault her, which she had concealed out of fear of his threats to kill her. (certain)