Feast of St. Maria Goretti -A Role Model for Girls

Hi everyone! First off, Please comment below and share! Today I am gonna be talking about Saint Maria Goretti, whose feast day was on Friday! Maria Goretti is actually my confirmation saint and two of my close friends as well so I have a deep devotion to her and this is why: if you know anything about Maria Goretti then you know that she was an eleven-year-old farm girl, who was attacked by an eighteen-year-old neighbor, who lived with their family. His name was Allesandro. He had tried to seduce Maria but was kept quiet by Alessandro's threats to kill her and her family.  And eventually, he would not take her no any longer and attempted to rape her. He ended up stabbing her fourteen times when she tried to fend him off. She continued to repeat "No.  It's a sin.  God does not want it.  You'll go to hell!". When Alessandro saw the blood all over Maria's clothes he realized what he had done and ran off to his bedroom and locked the door. Maria laid there in intense pain until her family, who was working in the fields, heard her baby sister's crying and came to find out what was wrong. The police were called and Alessandro was taken away while Maria was rushed to a hospital. She died the next day, July 6, 1902. Before she died, she forgave Allesandro. Later in a dream, she visited Allesandro, which led to his conversion. The day Allesandro got out of prison he went to Christmas Eve mass with Maria Goretti's mother who said that she could only forgive him because her daughter had first. Maria Goretti was canonized on June 24, 1950. Her mother was the first parent to see their child canonized. Maria Goretti is the patron saint of rape victims, young girls, purity, poverty, and forgiveness. 

If you would like to read more about St. Maria Goretti you can find a short story of her death here. And a longer story of her life here. 

I love asking for Maria Goretti's intercession to help me with any trouble I have with being pure. For me, this includes not wanting to dress modestly, being too boy crazy and ignoring my friends, leading boys on, entertaining impure thoughts, and telling impure jokes. Just remember that Maria Goretti was also a young girl who had to deal with boy problems and staying pure. She did not have to tell Allesandro no. In fact, it would have been much easier for him to have just said yes. By refusing Allesandro she was not only trying to stay pure herself but was trying to keep him pure. And yes obviously no one wants to be raped so some people say she was not trying to be pure she just didn't want her body to be violated. But before when Allesandro had pursued her she could have made that choice to have sex with him but she knew that God did not want it.  

I also encourage you to take your boy problems to the Blessed Mother because she was also a teenage girl who had boy problems too. So I always ask for her intercession to help me be pure.

Well, that's about all! I hope you guys enjoyed this post! Sorry, if it was kind of a bummer but Maria Goretti's story is not exactly very upbeat and happy.