Today July 6

Today is the feast of St. Maria Goretti, martyr of purity. She could have been a saint just from the nature of her life before her dramatic death, but her murder threw light onto this good girl's life and arguably is what made her a saint in the famous, canonized sense.

Her story (and the stories of other saints that are similar) is one that puzzles modern folk. Why fight rape -- even if you are a virgin -- to the point of death? All you lose is your virginity. If I had to answer them, I would just look at them with pity and say, "Yes, . . . but once you lose that, it is so very, very hard to get it back!" I think our society -- or certain elements of it, anyway -- doesn't value virginity because it feels that to do so unfairly targets those who don't have it anymore. After all, it is very fragile. But there are lots of fragile things, and that in itself doesn't make them valueless or less valuable. Some know the value of virginity (in this place called "bodily integrity"): "People like Maria Goretti -- and martyrs for purity, even those who are willing to experience a little momentary emotional discomfort on its behalf, are few and far between -- have an ever-present realization that to lightly surrender one's bodily integrity, even to the most compelling needs of the moment, upsets the whole rhythm of the universe." - Angelus Book of Saints. The anonymous author goes on to state that this little saint's canonization is particularly timely for us and that she was canonized almost more for our sake than for hers. Amen, amen, may more women and girls cherish their bodily integrity -- once called, illuminatingly, their "virtue" -- and more men and boys embrace their chivalry to protect it. Amen.

Note should be given to the fact that Maria who was stabbed 14 times (and who had been accosted by her killer, Alessandro Serenelli, at least two times before) died forgiving him -- and even after death extended her love and forgiveness, appearing to him in a dream, offering him flowers. He converted and repented after that, serving out his 30-year prison term, asking forgiveness of her mother when he got out, and taking up honest and humble work as a gardener in an Italian monastery.