Oct. 16--In a Plainfield Catholic church across from a cornfield, a woman from the Philippines with teary eyes knelt in a pew before the remains of a young saint from Italy.
"St. Maria Goretti was introduced to me in grade school. They wanted us to stay pure and chaste like her," said Cory Barangan, 75, of Plainfield, as she remembered her Catholic school days growing up in Manila.
Barangan was one of thousands of visitors who waited in line Thursday to see the remains of St. Maria Goretti at St. Mary Immaculate Parish in Plainfield. Her bones were encased in a wax statue, dressed in a white gown with light-blue sash and white gloves, with one hand clutching a white-beaded rosary. The glass case that held her rested on a pedestal covered in red velvet, about 2 feet off the ground, at the front of the sanctuary.
"The girls need to know her, that there's someone you can go to," Barangan said, as she watched a class of school children stream by Goretti's remains Thursday. "That's what we were taught when we were young. You have a friend in a saint."
Goretti's remains are touring the United States as the Catholic Church prepares to kick off a jubilee year, called the Holy Year of Mercy, on Dec. 8. Thursday's visit to St. Mary Immaculate Parish in Plainfield was her last showing in Illinois. Organizers said they expected 27,000 visitors between 10 a.m. and 11 p.m.
According to the Catholic Church, Goretti fought off an attempted rape by her 19-year-old neighbor and died after he then stabbed her 14 times in 1902.
Goretti's dying words were forgiveness for Serenelli, according to the church. Serenelli said Goretti later appeared to him as he served his 30-year jail sentence. He repented and asked her mother for forgiveness -- which the mother granted -- on Christmas Eve 1932.
Barangan, a parishioner at St. Mary, wasn't the only one of the faithful Thursday whose visit with Goretti happened far from where she first learned about the 11-year-old girl.
Wiola Swierk, 30, said she moved to Burbank 10 years ago from Poland, where she grew up with a strong Catholic faith. When Swierk heard Goretti would be in Plainfield, she packed up her 4-year-old, 3-year-old and 8-week-old children and drove an hour to the church. They waited in line about 20 minutes, she said.
"It's incredible. When I opened the church door, I started crying," said Swierk, adding she hoped "especially young people will be drawn to the need to surrender themselves to God."
Back in line, Sandy Streu, 36, of Plainfield, waited with her kids Collette, 7; Jimmy, 4; Brigid, 2; and Peregrine, 9 months.
Collette showed off the blue-and-gold rosary her dad made for her. She said, with help from her mom, that she was excited to see the saint and thought she would be beautiful.
Streu said she recently converted to Catholicism, so she didn't look up to Goretti as a child. But she home-schools her children and stresses the importance of the saints.
"Any opportunity to teach about the Catholic faith, we can't miss it," Streu said, "even if we have to wait in this line."
gbookwalter@tribpub.com
