Robert Barron, bishop-elect of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, celebrated the feast day of St. Maria Goretti by asking for the martyr’s intercession on behalf of people.

“St. Maria Goretti, pray for us!” Barron tweeted this week. 

At the age of 11, Maria Goretti faced a big challenge when an 18-year-old man tried to rape her, Catholic.org said. Maria resisted him and cried out, "No! It is a sin! God does not want it!" After she told her attacker she would rather die than give in to his demands, his response was to stab her 14 times. Maria's family found the girl and rushed her to a nearby hospital. Despite their best efforts, the doctors were unable to save her. Before she died, Maria said she forgave her attacker. 

The man, whose name was Alessandro, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. While he was serving his time, Maria appeared to him in a dream. When he awoke, he converted. When he was let out of prison, one of the first things he did was to find Maria’s mother so he could beg her to forgive him.

Maria's feast day is celebrated each year on July 6, Franciscan Media said. Many people became devoted to her, and many miracles are said to have occurred with Maria's intercession. When she was canonized in 1950, a quarter of a million people gathered to celebrate the occasion. Her attacker, Alessandro, who was 66 at the time, was among those in attendance. During the canonization, he was moved to tears and knelt.

After Alessandro died, a letter he had written was discovered. In it, he wrote, "Maria Goretti, now a Saint, was my good Angel, sent to me through Providence to guide and save me. I still have impressed upon my heart her words of rebuke and of pardon. She prayed for me, she interceded for her murderer. Thirty years of prison followed. If I had been of age, I would have spent all my life in prison. I accepted to be condemned because it was my own fault. Little Maria was really my light, my protectress; with her help, I behaved well during the 27 years of prison and tried to live honestly when I was again accepted among the members of society. ... I hope this letter that I wrote can teach others the happy lesson of avoiding evil and of always following the right path, like little children. I feel that religion with its precepts is not something we can live without, but rather it is the real comfort, the real strength in life and the only safe way in every circumstance, even the most painful ones of life.” 

Maria is the patron saint of rape victims, girls, teenagers and Catholic youth.