Which Italian saint at age 11 forgave her murderer before dying?

Saint Maria Goretti, an Italian saint, forgave her murderer before dying at age 11. On 5 July 1902, Alessandro Serenelli attacked her at the family’s home near Nettuno after she resisted his attempt to assault her. He stabbed her repeatedly, and she died in hospital the following day after expressing forgiveness and a hope that he would join her in heaven.

Maria had been born in Corinaldo in 1890 and belonged to a poor farming family. After her father died of malaria when she was nine, she helped care for her younger siblings while her mother and other relatives worked. Her family shared a house with the Serenelli family, whose son Alessandro was 20 at the time of the attack.

Serenelli was imprisoned for the crime. During his sentence he reportedly repented, later sought forgiveness from Maria’s mother, Assunta, and became a lay brother with the Capuchins after his release. He died in 1970.

Pope Pius XII canonized Maria in 1950. Her story is often simplified into a lesson about purity, but the central facts are her resistance to violence, her forgiveness, and the family’s later reconciliation with her attacker.