Mary was born within a poor family, she was the third of seven children, and she was ten when her father died. She used to pray very often and considered the Rosary as her favorite prayer.
At the age of eleven she received her First Communion and after this great event she decided to live in chastity. Mary lived in a country house just like Alessandro, who falls in love with Mary, however, he does with a selfish love that made him make her dishonest proposals continuously, which Mary rejected without caring about his threatens.
Alessandro tried to sexually abuse of Mary, she tried to ask for help and screamed but nobody heard. He gagged her and tried to tear her clothes out, threatening her with a dagger, he was desperate because of her denials so he told her that if she did not agree he would kill her, and that was exactly what he did. Mary received fourteen stabs, nevertheless she stayed alive until she arrived to the hospital she confessed and received the Holy Communion and the extreme unction, forgiving her murderer and asking God to forgive him too.
The murderer was condemned to 30 years of prison where, at the beginning he did not show any repentance. But one day he dreamed that Mary appeared to him telling him that he could also go to heaven, Alessandro then repented for what he did and asked for forgiveness from God and from Mary’s mother. He offered God the works and sufferings of prison to make up for his sins. After 27 years in prison he was freed and got Mary’s mother forgiveness.
“Mary Goretti encourages us to experience the joy of the poor who know how to renounce to everything in order not to loose the only thing that is vital: God’s friendship… Beloved young people, listen to Christ’s voice calling you to the sanctity narrow path that goes through the fidelity of chastity virtue” (John Paul II).
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