At only 11 years old, little Maria was stabbed when she refused to forsake her purity. On her deathbed, she lovingly forgave her murderer and died a virgin martyr.
Now, we approach a narrative of great mercy. The story involves a virgin martyr, her murderer, and her loving mother. It is a story that is as shocking in its brutality as it is tender and compelling in its sweetness.
In Le Ferriere, Maria and her family shared the house with Giovanni Serenelli and his son, Alessandro. Alessandro allowed his mind and heart to be warped by lust and violence. On July 5, 1902, he propositioned little Maria and threatened her with a knife. When she refused, Alessandro stabbed her fourteen times. It was a brutal attack, and Maria suffered from her wounds with little pain medication even after being rushed to the hospital.
In the last few hours of her life, when the priest came to administer Last Rites, he asked her: “And you, Maria, do you pardon, from the bottom of your heart, your murderer?” And, in a moment of tremendous grace, little Maria, dying and in great pain, said to the priest: “Yes, I, for the love of Jesus, pardon him. And I desire that he may come with me to heaven,” and then continued, “Pardon him, my God, because I have already forgiven him.”
Alessandro was taken immediately to jail. He denied that he was involved in the attack on Maria and then claimed to be out of his mind. His attempts to avoid accountability, however, were without success. After a trial, in which he was both foul and offensive in his demeanor, he was sentenced to thirty years in prison. In the first few years of prison, he had a hard heart. He showed no remorse for his sins against Maria Goretti and was monstrous in his behavior.
Alessandro’s cynicism enslaved him. He was under a dark cloud of despair and guilt, but mercy would prevail. The very one whose life he took would come to him and help him save his own.
One evening in a dream, Maria came to Alessandro dressed in white, bareheaded, and beaming with great joy. She was walking in a field of lilies and handed several of the lilies to Alessandro. Hesitantly, he received them and, as he did so, the lilies quickly became tongues of fire. He was confused and looked at Maria. She simply smiled and he woke up. Once awake, Alessandro knew exactly what the dream meant. He understood that the lilies were symbols of innocence that were now being offered to him again, while the tongues of fire were symbols of mercy and the purgation he would need to undergo in order to be restored to a life of grace. That very night Alessandro turned to Jesus Christ and begged for mercy. We can imagine St. Maria Goretti rejoicing with the heavenly host over the repentance of this one sinner.
Alessandro lived a good Christian life after his conversion. He served twenty-seven years in prison and was known for his gentleness and kindness to his fellow prisoners. He saw his prison sentence as a way to make reparation for his sin.
After his release from prison, Alessandro went to see Assunta to ask her for mercy in person. Assunta was sitting down to eat when Alessandro knocked on the door. When she opened it, she saw her daughter’s murderer on his knees, hands outstretched, sobbing and begging her for mercy. Only God knows what goes through the heart of a mother in such a moment.
Decades earlier, when Maria was with Assunta and they would walk to the local town or cross a field, Assunta was afraid of the snakes. Maria was not afraid and would tell her mother, “Come, Mamma, I will go ahead of you. Just follow me.” No doubt, her daughter’s witness and this counsel floated in Assunta’s heart as she saw Alessandro in front of her. Now, she would once again follow her daughter.
And so Assunta, wanting to be an instrument of mercy like her saintly daughter, helped Alessandro up, brought him into her home, and sat him down to eat the very food she had prepared for herself. When he asked her for mercy, Assunta told Alessandro, “I forgive you because Maria already has.”
The next Sunday at Mass, to the shock and renewal of the local community, Assunta joined Alessandro at the Communion rail and both received Holy Communion together. How appropriate that this mercy should be brought to the Altar of God and celebrated within the Eucharistic Banquet, which is the supreme act of mercy and reconciliation. This total expression of mercy from God and from Assunta freed Alessandro from any remaining anguish in his soul. He surrendered his life to God and joined in the work of the Capuchin friars until his death.
Alessandro lived to be eighty-seven years old, never forgetting the mercy shown to him by Maria and Assunta, and continually relying on the mercy poured upon him by the Lord Jesus Christ.
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This article is taken from a chapter in The Life and Witness of Saint Maria Goretti by Fr. Jeffrey Kirby, STD which is available from TAN Books.
