Feast day: July 6
Patron saint of victims of rape, crime victims, teenage girls, youth
On this first installment of the Sisterhood of Saints, I wanted to introduce to you all to an incredible saint who happens to be my confirmation saint: St. Maria Goretti.
The thing is, I didn’t choose her for her virtue or patronage. Instead, I chose St. Maria Goretti because my 12 year old self decided that she was the prettiest girl saint in my saints book. In the illustration in my book, she had long blonde hair, blue eyes, a blue and pink robe and she held lilies in her hand.
St. Maria Goretti, who is one of the youngest canonized saints in the history of the Church, is the patroness of youth, young women, purity, and victims of rape. I did learn about that as a kid when I did research, but I never realized how much her patronage in my life would mean to me until many years later.
In our world today, purity and chastity are two things are a real struggle. I myself was not immune to it just because I was a practicing Catholic, and I was especially not immune to it when I had stepped away from my faith for a quick hiatus. But in the time that I turned away from God, I let my guard down and quickly found myself getting hurt emotionally and physically. I found it hard to forgive myself for what I had done, and it was especially difficult to forgive those who had hurt me.
But St. Maria Goretti was really the bigger person in her story and ultimately chose to love and forgive the person who hurt her.
Learn more about St. Maria Goretti in this episode here:
“The Holy Eucharist is the perfect expression of the love of Jesus Christ for man.” — St. Maria Goretti
Additional resources on St. Maria Goretti:
From catholic.org: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=78
From catholiccompany.com: https://www.catholiccompany.com/getfed/st-maria-goretti-alessandro-serenelli-6088
From Catholic News Agency: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-maria-goretti-530