The Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, on the feast day of St. Maria Goretti on Wednesday, said the young girl was the best example of the concept of forgiveness.

“Today is the feast of St. Maria Goretti, known for her commitment to purity and the courageous defense of her faith at the young age of 11,” the diocese said in a Facebook posting. “She is also remarkable for the forgiveness she willingly granted her attacker as she lay on her deathbed. ... St. Maria Goretti, thank you for the example of your incredible forgiveness. Please pray for us!”

St. Maria Goretti was just 11 when an 18-year-old man tried to rape her, a report on Catholic.org said. Maria resisted him and cried out, "No! It is a sin! God does not want it!" 

She told her attacker she would rather die than give in, and he proceeded to stab her 14 times. Maria's family found her and rushed her to the nearest hospital, where the doctors were unable to save her. Before she succumbed to her wounds, Maria said, “For the love of Jesus I forgive him... and I want him to be with me in Paradise."

Alessandro, the man who killed her, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. While he was jailed, Maria appeared to him in a dream, and he converted when he awoke. Upon his release from prison, Alessandro tracked down Maria's mother and begged her forgiveness. 

Maria's feast day is July 6, Franciscan Media said. Many people became devoted to the young martyr, and many miracles have been said to have taken place with her intercession. In 1950, when she was canonized, a quarter of a million people gathered to celebrate, including Alessandro her attacker, who was 66 at the time. He knelt and wept during the event.  

A  letter Alessandro had written was found after he died, which said, in part: “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.