Alessandro Serenelli (born 2 June 1882 in Paterno d'Ancona - died on 16 May 1970 in Macerata) was an Italian, who in 1902 attempted to rape the young Maria Goretti. Not succeeding, he mortally wounded her. Following the forgiveness received from her deathbed, he was converted and after serving 27 years in prison he worked as a gardener and porter in a convent of Capuchin friars of the Marches. Maria Goretti was later proclaimed a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.

Early years

Serenelli was born into a peasant family. His father, John, was an alcoholic and his mother died in a psychiatric hospital when Alessandro was only a few months old, apparently after trying to drown her newborn son. A brother of the young man was interned in a psychiatric hospital, where he died. Alessandro's father worked as a coachman and a laborer but was unable to keep any job for a long time because of alcoholism and moved to Paliano to work as a Métayage. Here Serenelli knew the Goretti family with whom he established a relationship of cooperation and neighborliness. Unlike many of his contemporaries, the young Alessandro attended school until the second grade, learning to read and write, but already at the age of seven, he was sent by his brothers to work as a cabin boy to help the family. At eighteen, his father called him to work with him in Paliano.

During the period of attendance of the Goretti family

In 1902 Alessandro, nineteen year old, who had never had sex with a woman and was described by all as a very shy young man, quiet and shy, began to harass little Mary, then ten years old. In testimony given by him, it is possible can find this sentence, pronounced before the brutal incident: "After the second attempt in my mind was formed more than ever the intention to succeed in the vent of my passion and I conceived the idea to kill her if she continued to resist my cravings."

On 5 July 1902, he returned to the house and threatened her with death if she did not do as he said; he was intending to rape her. She would not submit, however, protesting that what he wanted to do was a mortal sin and warning Alessandro that he would go to hell. She desperately fought to stop Alessandro from raping her. She kept screaming, "No! It is a sin! God does not want it!" Alessandro first choked Maria, but when she insisted she would rather die than submit to him, he stabbed her eleven times.The injured Maria tried to reach for the door, but Alessandro stopped her by stabbing her three more times before running away.

The psychiatric made during the process found him capable of consent but he recognized that the conditions of his absolutely miserable life when a young man, and repeated cases of Mental disorder and alcoholism of his family to some extent attenuated his responsibility.

Condemnation and redemption

With the process, Serenelli was sentenced to 30 years in prison: he avoided the life imprisonment because the laws of that time was not yet of age. He came out of prison in 1929 after serving 27 years in prison. Of the 30 received, in fact, one year he was pardoned by the pardon to all prisoners received after the Italian victory in I World War, while two were the subscribers for good behavior.

On the night of Christmas of 1934 asked for forgiveness on his knees to the mother of Maria Goretti, who agreed to forgive him, because his daughter had made it on her deathbed. Having worked occasionally as a farmer and laborer, Serenelli then retired to a convent of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, where he worked as a gardener and porter.

In 1950 Maria Goretti was canonized by Pope Pius XII in the presence of Serenelli.

Serenelli died as a result of a fracture of the femur following a fall on 16 May 1970, at the age of 88 years, in a convent of Macerata, leaving the following will:

"I'm nearly 80 years old. I'm about to depart. "Looking back at my past, I can see that in my early youth, I chose a bad path which led me to ruin myself.

"My behavior was influenced by print, mass-media and bad examples which are followed by the majority of young people without even thinking. And I did the same. I was not worried.

"There were a lot of generous and devoted people who surrounded me, but I paid no attention to them because a violent force blinded me and pushed me toward a wrong way of life.

"When I was 20 years-old, I committed a crime of passion. Now, that memory represents something horrible for me. 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. The Brothers of St. Francis, Capuchins from Marche, welcomed me with angelic charity into their monastery as a brother, not as a servant. I've been living with their community for 24 years, and now I am serenely waiting to witness the vision of God, to hug my loved ones again, and to be next to my Guardian Angel and her dear mother, Assunta.

"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."

Alessandro Serenelli, May 5, 1961