Stained Glass Tour
  - Joseph the Patriarch
  - St. Therese of Liseux
  - St. Claire of Assisi
  - St. Francis of Assisi
  - St. Paul of Tarsus
  - Bl. Pedro Calungsod
  - St. Maria Goretti
  - Bl. Miguel Pro
  - St. Maximilian Kolbe
  - St. Gianna Molla
  - Bl. Teresa of Calcutta
  - Ven. John Paul II, Pope
  - St. John Vianney
  - Christ the King with St. Michael
the Archangel
 - Ven. Fr. Michael McGivney

The stained glass in the main section of St. Joseph's Church that is featured in this section was designed and created by parishioner Mary Mullins and all images are subject to copyright, 2007-2010, Valley Rose Designer Glass.  Descriptive text copyright Mary Mullins, 2007-2010.
You may contact them by calling (209) 238-3236.

The story of St. Maria Goretti is a dramatic yet tender account of faith, family love, joy, hardship, purity and forgiveness!  And yet, Maria, the heroine of this story had not yet celebrated her twelfth birthday when she became a martyr!  Through gentle humble souls such as hers, God shows us that we can never be too young, too poor or too uneducated to be an instrument of His love and His glory if we are willing to follow His commandments!Maria was born in the mountain village of Corinaldo in Italy.  Although the village and the surrounding landscape were incredibly beautiful, providing for their family was a constant struggle for her father, Luigi and her mother Assunta.  Luigi served as a soldier in his younger days and had seen the warmer Mediterranean lands further west. By 1897, he believed it was time to try his luck elsewhere, so he and Assunta backed up their little brood of four young children: Angelo was nine, Maria was six, Marino was four and the baby, Allessandro, was still an infant. 

Their hopeful journey down the mountains toward Campagna had challenges of its own particularly traveling with such young children. It took two weeks to journey two hundred miles, a trip we would make in 3 or 4 hours today.  But, they kept their hopes up, stopping to pray in the churches along the way. They anxiously looked forward to setting down to work on a farm with the rich fertile soil Luigi had seen so many years ago.
By the time the family arrived in Nettuno, they were tired of traveling and ready to settle down.  In Nettuno, Luigi heard of Count Mazzoleni who had good farming land in Ferriere, to the southwest.  With high hopes, Luigi and Assunta signed on as sharecroppers on Count Mazzoleni’s land.  They would finally have a home and eight acres to work!  Along the way to their new home, they passed by the Count’s lovely fertile fields, but soon they discovered that the Count’s land that they would be working skirted the Pontine Marshes.  It was damp miserable mosquito infested land that needed constant draining. The home and the accompanying buildings were in a desperate state of repair so Luigi also needed to renovate their living conditions. 

Despite the disappointments, Luigi and Assunta worked hard to make the place a happy home and in time, they welcomed three more babies.  They were prayerful people and worked to instill a deep love of God in their children. Maria’s heart was innocent, an open flower filled with the love of God.  She knew loving Him meant loving those around her. Although she was illiterate, the Passionist priests in the area oversaw her religious education and she received the Sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Communion.  Maria was growing into a beautiful young lady. She had a sensitive yet cheerful disposition and was a great help and delight to both her parents.  

As the years went by, the hard work, the heat, humidity and repeated bouts with malaria left Luigi exhausted and barely able to work the crops. When Count Mazzoleni visited the Goretti’s one day to see how his fields were progressing, he was furious that Luigi’s crops were not well taken care of. He did not have a reputation for compassion nor did he care that the living conditions he provided for the Goretti’s contributed to Luigi’s failing health.  To protect his crops, the Count sent Giovanni Serenelli, a 60 year old widower and his 18 year old son Allesandro, to live and work with the Goretti’s and also claim a share of the crop.  Luigi was not happy with this, but since he and Assunta felt they had no choice, they decided to make the best of things.

For a brief time, this arrangement went well; the Serenelli’s got the crops back on track and the two families lived harmoniously.   However, once the harvest was over and winter set in, so did the problems.  Giovanni Serenelli liked his wine and was even more mean-spirited when drunk. Allesandro became sullen and one day when Assunta was cleaning, she discovered he had a collection of pornography.  Luigi and Assunta were concerned about his influence on their oldest son Angelo.  More time passed and in April 1902, Luigi who was exhausted, disappointed and sick from malaria, died.  As he lay dying, he whispered to his wife to take the children and return to Corinaldo.

Assunta sincerely missed Corinaldo, but it was impossible for her, a woman alone to travel over two hundred miles with seven children.  She decided to stay put for the time and work in the fields while Maria assumed the household duties and care of the children.   Giovanni Serenelli made life hard for her, with his anger and laziness. Unbeknownst to Assunta, Maria now had to contend with Allesandro. He had been stalking her and trying to force himself upon her and then threatening her if she told anyone. All Assunta knew was that Maria’s joy of life was gone. 

In July 1902, just months after her Luigi’s death, Allesandro attacked Maria, ripping some of her clothes off her body in an attempt to rape her. She fought him begging him to stop and telling him what he wanted to do was a terrible sin.  In response, he stabbed her repeatedly before running away. No one but the little children she was taking care of heard her screams over the sound of farm machinery.  Eventually their crying awoke the angry Giovanni Serenelli from his nap and his shouting brought Assunta and the other neighbors running to the house. They found Maria drenched in her own blood, but still alive. She identified Allesandro as her attacker.

An ambulance wagon took Maria to a hospital in the town of Nettuno where the doctors tried without much hope to repair her wounds.  The anesthesia was not effective and Maria woke up during the painful surgery.  She suffered fantastic pain for 20 hours, but still she was able to very sincerely forgive Allesandro praying that he would be one day with her in paradise.  She died on July 6, 1902.

This is a sad ending, but remember, God brings good from evil, so the best is yet to come!  The police quickly arrested Allesandro.  At first he pled not guilty and even tried to accuse Maria of encouraging his advances. But the evidence against him was strong and so he was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison.  In the meantime, a heart broken Assunta took her six children and returned to Corinaldo; the memories of life in Ferriere were too painful to face every day!

Even the horrors of prison did not bring Allesandro to repentance. For six years he remained angry and unrepentant, even attacking the priests who came to minister to him.  Then one day after Msgr. Giovanni Blandini visited him, Allesandro had a dream in which he was in a beautiful garden. He saw a pretty young girl in the distance who appeared to be walking toward him. He was puzzled because she was dressed as a farm girl, but in light, pale colored clothes, not the usual dark dresses worn by farm girls of those days.  As she approached, he saw that the girl was Maria, radiantly beautiful, smiling at him and gathering white lilies as she came toward him.  One by one, she handed Allesandro a lily. As she did so, the lily became brilliant white and burned up in his hands.  Maria did this fourteen times.  In her gentle, delicate gestures Allesandro knew that Maria had forgiven him and from then on he experienced a true conversion and became a model prisoner. He wrote to Msgr. Blandini and told him of his dream   His behavior was so good that he was released three years early.  He was now 47 years old. 

Upon his release from prison, Allesandro needed to start a new life. First, he sought out the Capuchin Friars at Macerata who welcomed him in the charity and spirit of St. Francis.  He lived and worked there, tending the gardens until his death in 1970 at the age of 87.  The second thing Allesandro did after his release was to find Assunta and beg her forgiveness. She sincerely forgave him saying that if her little Maria forgave him, she must forgive him as well.  The day following their meeting, they attended Mass and received Holy Communion together.
In 1950 Pope Pius XII canonized Maria at a Mass at St. Peter’s.  Assunta Goretti was there and she was the first mother to be present at the canonization of her child.  Allesandro Serenelli was also there calling Maria his “light and protector”. The Church honors St. Maria Goretti as the patron saint of rape victims, youth, chastity, poverty, purity and forgiveness.

In this window…

St. Maria is walking down a stone path in a lovely garden with butterflies fluttering very close to her.  Her skirt, blouse and the simple shawl around her shoulders are soft blue and she has her work shoes on her feet.  Her reddish brown hair is loose around her shoulders and she looks at us with a serene expression. 

In her hands and on either side of the footpath are fourteen white lilies in full bloom.  These represent the fourteen lilies she gave to Allesandro Serenelli.  In the bottom of the window, a knife rests on a rock by the garden path.  The knife represents the knife that Allesandro used in his attack on Maria, but to further illustrate Maria’s forgiveness of Allesandro, she does not hold on to it.  It is simply rests on the rock; a symbol of the reality of what happened but because she is not holding it, it is also strong symbol of her forgiveness of Allesandro.