CONFIRMATION NAME of ALYSSA CIOFFI

MARIA GORETTI

ALYSSA CIOFFI

Patron Saint - ST. MARIA GORETTI

(October 16, 1890 – July 6, 1902) is an Italian Roman Catholic Virgin Martyr saint. She is one of the youngest saints of the Roman Catholic Church. She was martyred after dying from multiple stab wounds, inflicted by her attempted rapist after she refused him because of love of Jesus and her loyalty to God's commandments.St. Maria Goretti was born "Maria Teresa Goretti" in the year 1890 in Corinaldo, in the Province of Ancona, then the Kingdom of Italy. She was the third out of six children. By the time she was six, her family had become so poor that they were forced to give up their farm, move, and work for other farmers. Soon, Maria's father became very sick. Luigi Goretti died when Maria was nine. While her brother, mother and sisters worked in the fields, Maria would cook, sew, and keep the house clean. It was a hard life, but the family was very close. They shared a deep love for God and the Faith. She and her family moved to Le Ferriere di Conca, near modern Latina and Nettuno in Lazio, where they lived in a building they shared with another family, the Serenellis.

Maria's martyrdom
On July 6, 1902, finding eleven-year old Maria alone sewing, Alessandro Serenelli came in and threatened her with death if she did not do as he said. She would not submit, however, protesting that what he wanted to do was a mortal sin and warning Alessandro that he would go to Hell .Alessandro at first choked Maria, but when she insisted she would rather die than submit to him, he stabbed her eleven times. The injured yet still-living Maria tried to reach for the door, but Alessandro stopped her by stabbing her three more times before running away.

Maria's little sister Teresa awoke with the noise and started crying, and when Serenelli's father and Maria's mother came to check on the little girl, they found the bleeding Maria and took her to the nearest hospital in Nettuno. She underwent surgery without anesthesia, but her injuries were already beyond anything the doctors could do. Halfway throughout the surgery, Maria woke up. She insisted that it stay that way. The pharmacist of the hospital in which she died asked her, "Maria, think of me in Paradise." She looked to the old man: "Well, who knows, which of us is going to be there first." "You Maria," he replied. "Then I will gladly think of you," Maria said with a smile.The following day, twenty hours after the attack, having expressed forgiveness for her murderer and stating that she wanted to have him in Heaven with her, Maria died of her injuries.