St. Maria Goretti was only a child when she died a martyr's death. Yet today, she inspires millions who find in her a perfect model of purity and holiness. Read here about her great holiness in the midst of tremendous suffering , how she died at the hands of a vicious murderer who tried to defile her purity, and how she visited this very same murderer years later in his jail cell to forgive him.

Fr. Jeffrey Kirby examines the life of this little saint as he reflects on the Beatitudes and how she, along with her family, lived them each day. In a world where purity is corrupted in the darkness of the night and mercy is abandoned in the name of vengeance, let us turn to St. Maria Goretti and see her as the dawn of a new day, where the light of Christ shines on each of us and guides us into His Kingdom.