Martyr for Purity Revisited

On Maria Goretti as Martyr for Purity · Martyr for Purity Revisited

Can a suicide go to heaven? If a successful suicide is nevertheless so slow it leaves you time to repent, perhaps so. Tchaikovski seems to have attempted this by drinking water contaminated with cholera and trying to get absolution while dying of cholera.

Now, can a martyr do something after becoming a martyr? On earth, that is?

Yes, when dying from 14 stab wounds takes 24 hours, you can. Maria Goretti was, first, martyr for purity. It has been said she was trying to resist rape, and if she had been raped, she would have still been pure. Well, morally yes, but physically not with the integrity. Which she cared about. Also, before the attempt of rape, he had tried to seduce her, and she had refused. I would say, his attempt at seduction and killing was more serious than his attempt of rape. As he was 18 and she a few months short of 12, if he had been very serious, I am not sure she could have defended herself. Now, whatever his calculus behind the attempted rape, she had already got herself into the target field of his anger by refusing to consent to an act against purity. This clearly means, she was killed for her love of purity.

After she was killed, she took 24 hours or so dying.

She spent them praying for God to forgive her killer. A martyr for purity first, an apostle for God's forgiveness next.

Dear Maria Goretti, pray for us.

Dear Alessandro, penitent, pray for us./HGL