Monday, July 6th, 2020

Maria Goretti was killed when she was 11, after refusing to have sex with the 20-year-old who responded by stabbing her 14 times - even as she was crawling away to the door. What is amazing is the saint’s response to this: a few years after her death she appeared in a dream to the unrepentant man in prison to evangelise him. And he repented. And upon release apologised to Maria’s mother, started receiving the sacraments, attended her canonisation in 1950 - and eventually became and died as a simple lay Franciscan friar.