THE SAINTS IN A YEAR - ST MARIA GORETTI AND THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS

Fr Billy Swan

Nettuno is an Italian coastal town about seventy kilometres south of Rome. I often travel there by train on my days off to walk the beach and pray. Nettuno is famous for a huge Military Cemetery where thousands of soldiers are buried who were killed during the Second World War in January 1944 when Allied forces landed by sea and were repelled by Hitler’s forces at nearby Anzio. Nettuno is also known as the home of Saint Maria Goretti whose remains lie in the crypt of the Basilica overlooking the sea and whose feast day we celebrate on 6^th July.

At the end of the 19^th century, a poor Italian family relocated from the Marche region of Italy to the town of Nettuno in search of a better life. The Goretti family included the parents and their six children, the oldest being a daughter named Maria. They found accommodation with the Serenelli family that included a nineteen-year old boy named Alessandro. One day, finding himself alone in the house with Maria who was only twelve, Alessandro tried to sexually assault Maria who resisted him as best she could, fearing for his soul as much as her own safety. In a rage, Alessandro stabbed Maria fourteen times and after a few days in hospital, she died of her injuries. Serenelli was sentenced to thirty years in prison for the murder during which he repented for his sin and sought the forgiveness of Maria’s family. In a letter to the Bishop of Noto, he wrote: “I detest the evil I have done, and I ask God’s forgiveness and that of the poor, desolate family for the great wrong I committed. I hope that I too, like so many others in this world, may obtain pardon”.

After his release from prison, Alessandro Serenelli lived a life of prayer and penance. He made contact with the Goretti family and met Maria’s mother, Assunta. She forgave him, explaining that Maria had forgiven him before she died and that God would forgive him too as his mercy knows no end.

Maria Goretti was canonised a saint by Pope Pius XII in 1950 in St Peter’s Square in Rome. In attendance was her mother, Assunta, the first time a mother was present when her child was declared to be a saint (the second being the mother of St Carlo Acutis, present at his canonisation in 2025). In attendance was also Alessandro Serenelli, the first murderer to attend the canonisation of his victim. As a sign of their reconciliation, Alessandro and Assunta are buried side by side in Corinaldo, Italy, Maria’s birthplace.

St Maria Goretti is patron saint of rape victims and teenage girls. Her resistance to sexual assault is a continuous cry to heaven for those who suffer sexual abuse and who are objectified in any way. The need to foster a culture of protection of the young against unwanted boundary violations seems all the more necessary at a time of greater exposure to pornography and permissiveness.

But perhaps the part of Maria’s story that deserves greater attention is the heroic forgiveness of Maria and her mother of Alessandro Serenelli. This progressed to such as degree that both are buried together as a permanent sign of reconciliation and hope.

Many people who have suffered great wrongs in their lives, struggle to forgive the person who harmed them because they think that doing so in some way lessens the wrong that was done to them. In the case of Alessandro Serenelli, this was not the case. He came to recognise his “terrible and deplorable deed” which made a reconciliation with Maria’s family possible.  What also made it possible was the forgiveness offered by Maria herself who heroically offered it to Alessandro without lessening the gravity of the crime.

In the Gospels, forgiveness is a core teaching and one of the most challenging demands of love.  It would be impossible without the example of Jesus himself who forgave his own killers, as Maria did too. It would also be impossible to forgive without his grace given to us that imparts both the gift of forgiveness and enables us to forgive others as we have been forgiven ourselves (cf. Matt. 18:21-35).

With his forgiveness we are unburdened from guilt, self-loathing, anger and shame. With God’s forgiveness that we have received and extend to others, we are freed from anger and bitterness and other emotionally destructive feelings such as hatred and revenge. Our faith also enables us to distinguish between the sin and the sinner – to forgive the wrong done to us without denying the wrong that was committed.

The story of St Maria Goretti and the reconciliation of her killer with her family shows that nothing is impossible with God’s grace and how the deepest wounds can be healed by a divine love that is our greatest hope. In Nettuno where thousands violently lost their lives, it is a sign of hope in darkness.