From Corinaldo to Nettuno, we go to meet Saint Maria Goretti

Saint Maria Goretti: The Saint of Everyday Life and Forgiveness

Santa Maria Goretti, affectionately known as Marietta, was born on October 16, 1890, in Corinaldo, in the province of Ancona, the third of seven children. Her family lived in great poverty and, for this reason, emigrated in 1897 due to a lack of work, first settling in Paliano, near Fiuggi, and later at the Ferriere di Conca, in the middle of the Pontine Marshes, a malarial area with a high risk of death. After her father’s death, she was forced to grow up quickly: she helped her mother take care of the household, her younger siblings, and the fields. On August 5, 1902, Alessandro Serenelli, the son of a sharecropper, attempted to assault her and, when she refused him, attacked her, stabbing her fourteen times with an awl. Marietta was found dying and taken to the hospital. Shortly before her death, she expressed her forgiveness: «Yes, for the love of Jesus I forgive him, and I want him to come with me to Paradise». Following the traces of her short but radiant life, we visit the sanctuaries dedicated to her in Corinaldo and Nettuno.

Diocesan Sanctuary of Santa Maria Goretti in Corinaldo

The Church of San Nicolò, commonly known as Sant’Agostino and now the Sanctuary of Santa Maria Goretti, and the adjacent former monastery were built in their present forms during the 18th century. The church predates the convent; its construction dates from 1740-1756, while the monastic building was constructed between 1767 and 1780, based on a design by the Corinaldo architect Giuseppe Carbonavi Geminiani. The ancient medieval Church of San Nicolò, built on two levels - the lower one for the people and the upper one for the clergy - was incorporated into the convent building when it was rebuilt in the 18th century. Traces of this church, which today houses the Municipal Hall on the lower floor and the municipal library on the upper floor, remain in the rounded section of the building that was originally intended to be its apse.
The current building has an elegant brick façade with pilasters whose bases and capitals are made of limestone. The interior, with a single nave, has a Latin-cross plan, with a dome and lantern over the transept. It is an excellent example of late Baroque architecture, with an elegance enhanced by the graceful variety of its pictorial and scenic effects.

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Grace and Saint Maria Goretti in Nettuno

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Grace and Saint Maria Goretti in Nettuno is the church that houses the body of the young girl, a martyr of purity (1890-1902). It stands at the end of the Giacomo Matteotti seafront promenade. In August 1970, Pope Paul VI elevated it to the status of a minor basilica.
The present building was constructed in the 16th century on the site of a small church originally dedicated to the Annunciation. Here, visitors can admire the crypt containing the relics of Saint Maria Goretti and the wooden statue dedicated to Our Lady of Grace, which was found after a violent storm brought it to the beaches of Nettuno in 1550. At that time, following the Anglican Schism, Catholic churches were being looted by English sailors, who also tried to steal this wooden statue. However, surprised by bad weather while heading to Naples, they were thwarted by fate. The church was closed several times, both at the beginning of the 20th century and again in the mid-1960s. It took four years, but in 1969 it was finally reopened, with the masterpieces inside given an unprecedented arrangement.

To learn about the sanctuaries