The Diocese of Phoenix marked the feast day of St. Maria Goretti on Wednesday.

“Today we celebrate the Memorial of St. Maria Goretti,” the diocese posted on Facebook. “Ora pro nobis!” 

At the age of 11, St. Maria Goretti was attacked by an 18-year-old man who 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 said she would rather die than give in, and he then stabbed her more than a dozen times. Maria's family found her and took her to a nearby hospital, but the doctors there were not able to save her. Before she died from her wounds, Maria verbally said she forgave her attacker. 

The man, whose name was Alessandro, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. While there, Maria appeared to him in a dream. When he awoke, he converted. Soon after he was released from prison, Alessandro went to Maria's mother to beg her forgiveness.  

Maria's feast day is celebrated on July 6, Franciscan Media said. Many people are devoted to Maria, and many miracles have reportedly been linked to her intercession. She was canonized in 1950, at which time a quarter of a million people gathered to celebrate the occasion, including Alessandro her attacker, who was then 66 years old. He was said to have knelt and wept during the event.

A letter Alessandro had written was discovered after his death. In it he said: “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.