St. Maria Goretti

Mixed media gouache painting of St. Maria Goretti; hand-embellished with golf leaf, gold flake, and floral details; varnished with resin on 5 X 7 inch wooden panel; signed by artist
 
-The 14 lilies recall Maria’s violent death and her heroic act of mercy. After refusing the sexual advances of a young farmhand named Alessandro Serenelli, Maria was stabbed by him 14 times. Before dying of these injuries, Maria forgave her murderer, declaring, “Yes, for the love of Jesus I forgive him...and I want him to be with me in Paradise.”
During his 30-year prison sentence, Serenelli repented for his sins after Goretti appeared to him in a vision and offered him 14 lilies representing her 14 stab wounds.

-Maria’s flowing heavenly gown is painted rose, the liturgical color signifying Christian joy. Maria embraced her own suffering with radical joy as a participation with Christ’s salvific Passion, which recalls the line of St. Paul in Colossians: “I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.”

-Her trusting, heavenward gaze evokes Christ’s reverence for the model of holiness witnessed by children like Maria: “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 18:3).

-Maria is depicted holding a palm branch because it symbolizes her victory over evil, as the palm branch is a traditional Christian symbol of triumph.