Description

Oil Dedicated to St Maria Goretti (Patron for Teenage Girls)

St Maria Goretti when St. Maria Goretti’s parents held their newborn child for the first time. They hardly could have imagined that eleven short years later she would die a martyr and a saint. Yet, while her fate unknown to them, her parents did much to help prepare her for that fateful day. From her parents’ knees, St. Maria Goretti taught piety and devotion. Her mother and father poor in goods of the earth. But rich in faith, a faith which they generously shared with their children. Because of their faith and their love of God, the family happy, even though the often suffered from want.

Hoping to rise from their desperate poverty, St. Maria Goretti’s family moved to the Pontines Marshes. Her parents worked as tenant farmers in the disease-infested swamp and soon, a swamp-born disease would claim the life of her father, Luigi. His wife, Assunta, then left to provide entirely for the children, while St. Maria had to take on great responsibilities, helping care for the younger children.

Her mother considered St. Maria to be a blessing and after the girl’s martyrdom, she could not remember an occasion where St. Maria willfully disobeyed her. Cheerful and also known to be generous, sharing her meager food with her siblings. St. Maria Goretti also deeply devoted to Our Lady and wore a rosary around her wrist, so she could pray often.

At age 11, St. Maria Goretti made her First Communion with great devotion. Just a month afterwards, she called to receive the double crown of martyrdom and virginity. On July 5, 1902, the 16 year tenant worker Alessandro pulled a knife on St. Maria, intending to force her commit a sin against the virtue of purity.

Instead, St. Maria Goretti cried out “No! No! No! It is a sin—you will go to Hell!” Angrily, Alessandro stabbed her fourteen times and left her for dead. Since everyone was out in the fields, no one heard Maria’s cries for help. She finally discovered and rushed to the hospital, but little could be done.