Alessandro Serenelli, the man who killed St Maria Goretti

[Dawn Marie]

This is Alessandro Serenelli, (the man who killed St Maria Goretti for not allowing him to defile her in 1902) venerating the image of Maria Goretti.

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Alessandro was sentenced to 30 years in prison. At his trial, he blamed Maria for her own death claiming that he was defending himself from a sexual attack that she herself instigated.

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In prison he was locked in isolation as his anger would lead to outbursts of physical violence against other inmates.

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One night, six years into his prison sentence, Maria appeared to Alessandro. She appeared in a garden picking 14 white lily flowers, handing them to him one by one. This gesture of forgiveness, this act of love, filled Alessandro with light and the Holy Spirit. He immediately became contrite for what he did to that little girl.

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He finished the rest of his sentence in tranquility. In fact, his behavior became so docile, and the transformation of his person was so dramatic, that he was released three years early.

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Shortly after his release he sought out, and received, the forgiveness of Maria’s mother. He eventually joined the Capuchin Franciscans and, as a lay brother, worked as a gardener, porter, and general laborer. He died in the peace of Christ, with the love and admiration of those that knew him, at the Cappuchin convent at Macerata, Italy, on May 6, 1970.

[Joseph]

God’s mercy knows no bounds.

[nellie smith]

The beautiful love of Jesus