Maria Goretti

St. Maria Goretti is an Italian virginmartyr of the Roman Catholic Church, and one of the youngest canonized saints. She was born to a farming family. Her father died when she was nine, and they had to share a house with another family, the Serenellis. Maria took over household duties while her mother, brothers, and sister worked in the fields. One afternoon, Alessandro, the Serenellis son, made sexual advances to her. When she refused to submit to him, he stabbed her fourteen times. She was taken to the hospital but she died forgiving him. He was arrested, convicted, and jailed. After three years he repented, and when eventually released from prison, he visited her mother to beg forgiveness, which she granted. He later became a lay brother in a monastery, dying peacefully in 1970. She was beatified in 1947, and canonized in 1950.

Maria Teresa Goretti was born on October 16, 1890 in Corinaldo, in the Province of Ancona, then in the Kingdom of Italy, to Luigi Goretti and Assunta ne Carlini, the third of seven children Antonio , Angelo, Maria, Mariano , Alessandro , Ersilia, and Teresa.

Source: Wikipedia