St. Maria Goretti

A young girl.
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At the age of twelve, St. Maria was not simply a pious young girl, she was actually a very virtuous and mature - as in responsible - young woman.  She helped her mother raise, nurture and educate her siblings while attending to simple household duties.  Attach to these attributes a deep devotion to our Lord and the Blessed Virgin, and we come to understand the authenticity of her piety and heroic virtue, which was proved by her martyrdom.  While it is true Maria Goretti resisted her attacker to preserve her own chastity, we also must understand that what is so remarkable about her resistance was her concern to prevent her attacker from committing mortal sin.  Crazy as that sounds since Alessandro did in the end commit the mortal sin of murder, the Saint herself saw to his conversion after he had been convicted for his crime and was in prison serving his sentence.
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In this story of modern martyrdom I think it is important that we see how God in his grace and mercy draws good out of evil.  When some of us ask ourselves why we are like we are, or why we were sexually abused and bad things happened to us, or why little innocents suffer, I'm convinced the example of martyrs such as Maria Goretti demonstrate to us that it is because God in his mercy may draw even greater good from such evils.  We keep forgetting that this life is passing, a short stay in an often-times bad Hotel California on the road to eternal life.  Hence we are astonished when God raises to glory young children, and through them extends his salvation to perverts and murderers.  The holy purity and charity of slaughtered innocents can touch even the hardest hearts and move them to compunction and deeper conversion.
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For those of us who have not 'resisted sin to the point of shedding blood' remember that the Precious Blood of Jesus brings forth virgins... even after virginity is lost.  I think the example and intercession of Maria Goretti is especially important for young men and women who have lost their virginity, especially victims of rape, as well as the offenders.  Sometimes the example of the saints can be intimidating, and often times well intentioned religious people use the saints to castigate or shame the worldly - and yet it is just the opposite with God.  He makes saints to attract us to virtue, to holiness, to Himself.  The example of the saints should never be used to denigrate, intimidate, condemn or repel a soul attracted to virtue.  St. Maria Goretti proves this through her apparition (intervention) to her murderer, convincing him of God's merciful love.  I think it is through their example that many of the saints condemned a sinful world, yet charity remains the compelling force which moves them to heroic love for the sinner.
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Link:
Biography of St. Maria Goretti