Today was a "free day" on the schedule, our only commitment being dinner, or cena at 8:00 PM. The deacons were free to do what they wished today. After Mass at the Domus with Fr. Betancourt at 10:00 this morning, Deacons Steve Jones and Ben Little hopped a regional train for the hour ride out to Nettuno, a city on the Tyrrhenian Sea west of Rome. Nettuno is near Anzio, the place where Allied Forces landed to establish a beachhead on the Italian Peninsula on January 22nd, 1944. In the very bloody series of battles that ensued, many Americans lost their lives in this part of Italy. Nettuno is home to the American Cemetery where some 7,000 soldiers are buried who died in the Sicilian and Italian campaigns of 1943-1944.
Nettuno is also the hometown of a great young 20th century saint - Maria Goretti, who died a martyr defending her purity from an assailant, Alessandro Serenelli, bent on raping her in 1902. After being sentenced for the murder of Maria, Alessandro had profound conversion and repented of his sin, largely through Maria's intercession. Maria's mother forgave him and he sat by her side at Maria's canonization in 1950, after having served his sentence. St. Maria's body is found in the crypt chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria della Grazie e Santa Maria Goretti:
Deacon Ben Little visits the body of St. Maria Goretti in Nettuno, where he offered special prayers for Miss Allis and all her students of the St. Maria Goretti classroom at Pope John Paul II Catholic School in NE Minneapolis.
Thanks for the prayers, Ben. You are in ours! Will share your link with the children of God at school on Monday!
ReplyDeleteSt MARIA Goretti was my favorite saint when I was in high school.
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