St. Maria Goretti

Patroness of our studio, St. Maria Goretti was stabbed to death at the age of eleven for refusing to consent to a sinful act. As she lay dying in the hospital amidst excruciating pain, she famously forgave her attacker.

The murderer was initially unrepentant, but, when his victim appeared to him in prison and offered him a series of lilies, he experienced a dramatic conversion. After serving his sentence, he reconciled with Maria’s family, became a Capuchin lay brother, and lived to see her canonized a saint.

George and Polly’s portrait of the brave peasant girl from rural Italy stresses her youth, her innocence, and her quiet, unassuming courage. The red garment alludes to her violent death, while the white shawl symbolizes the purity that she gave her life to protect. The lilies falling from her open hand refer to the prison vision and represent forgiveness. The palm branches and laurel wreath in the halo stand for the victory of martyrdom, while the fourteen hatch-marks correspond to the number of times she was stabbed by her assailant with an ice pick. The Latin text in the halo, from Isaiah 63:2 (“Wherefore is thy clothing stained red...?”), constitutes the opening words of the Vespers antiphon proper to the evening she expired.