St. Maria Goretti learned mercy from her family

While St. Maria Goretti certainly received many graces from God to forgive her attacker, she also likely learned mercy from the family she grew up in.

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The most astonishing part of St. Maria Goretti’s life is the fact that she forgave her attacker on her deathbed.

It is recorded that she said, “I forgive Alessandro Serenelli…and I want him with me in heaven forever.”

How could an 11-year-old have such extraordinary faith and be able to forgive someone who stabbed her to death?

Family life

St. John Paul II pointed to Maria’s family as one of the sources of her holiness in a letter he sent on the 100th anniversary of her death:

Despite the hardships of poverty which even prevented her from going to school, little Maria lived in a serene and united family atmosphere, enlivened by Christian faith, in which the children felt welcomed as a gift and were taught by their parents self-respect and respect for others, as well as a sense of duty based on love of God. This enabled the little girl to grow up peacefully, nourishing her simple but deep faith. The Church has always recognized the role of the family as the first and fundamental place for the sanctification of its members, starting with the children.

The loss of her father at a young age tested her family’s faith and Maria ended up being the rock of the family:

In this family environment Maria assimilated steadfast trust in God’s provident love, which she showed in particular at the death of her father, who died of malaria. “Mother, be brave, God will help us,” the little girl was in the habit of saying in those difficult times, bravely reacting to her deep feeling of loss at her father’s death.

While God’s grace was certainly active in her ability to quickly forgive her attacker, the mercy she gave might have been influenced by her family as well:

The saint’s mother, for her part, pardoned him on behalf of the family in the hall of the tribunal where his trial was taking place. We do not know whether it was the mother who taught her daughter to forgive or the martyr’s forgiveness on her death-bed that determined her mother’s conduct. Yet it is certain that the spirit of forgiveness motivated relations within the whole Goretti family, and for this reason could be so naturally expressed by both the martyr and her mother.

One of the lessons we can learn from St. Maria Goretti’s heroic life and death is the importance of family life. Saints are typically not born in a vacuum, but are nurtured by the faith from their first steps.