One of the largest crowds ever assembled for a canonization – 250,000 – symbolized the reaction of millions touched by the simple story of Maria Goretti (Tuesday 6th / 1890-1902).

She was the daughter of a poor Italian tenant farmer, had no chance to go to school, never learned to read or write. She made her First Communion not long before her death at age 12, but had struggled with catechesis.

On a hot afternoon in July, Maria was sitting at the top of the stairs of her house, mending a shirt. She was not quite 12-years-old, but physically mature. A cart stopped outside, and an 18-year-old neighbour, Alessandro, ran up the stairs. He seized her & pulled her into a bedroom. She struggled and tried to call for help. “No, God does not wish it,” she cried out. “It is a sin. You would go to hell for it.” Alessandro began striking at her blindly with a long dagger.

She was taken to a hospital. Her last hours were marked by the usual simple compassion of the good – concern about where her mother would sleep, forgiveness of her murderer (she had long been in fear of him, but said nothing, lest she cause trouble to his family) and her devout welcoming of Viaticum, her last Holy Communion. She died 24 hours after the attack.

Her murderer was sentenced to 30 years in prison. For a long time he was unrepentant and surly. One night he had a dream or vision of Maria, gathering flowers & offering them to him. His life changed. When he was released after 27 years, his first act was to beg the forgiveness of Maria’s mother.

Devotion to the young martyr grew, miracles were worked, and in less than half a century she was canonized. At her beatification in 1947, her mother (then 82), two sisters and a brother appeared with the Venerable Pope Pius XII on the balcony of S. Peter’s. Three years later, at her canonization, her attacker, 66-year-old Alessandro Serenelli, knelt among the quarter of a million people and cried tears of joy at her raising to the altars.

St Joseph’s is blessed to possess a relic of this remarkable saint.