Purity
In the present cultural decadence of the western world, where chastity, purity, and sexual morality usually are the objects of derision and ridicule, where virginity, not only before marriage, but as a life long commitment, is wholly incomprehensible to most, and where the internet and the media, which are the principal carriers of our contemporary, neo-pagan culture, promote and foster almost every kind of sexual depravity, the witness through the centuries of the heroic martyrs who suffered death rather than commit any sins of impurity and unchastity stands as a counter-cultural beacon in our degenerate world.
In the First Eucharistic Prayer in the Latin Rite, the ancient Roman Canon of the Mass, dating from the earliest centuries of the Church's history, there is a list of women and girl martyrs almost all of whom are remembered, venerated, and invoked by the Church because they were determined to keep intact the Gospel value of their virginity and purity, even at the cost of their lives. From the era of the catacombs come the names of Saints Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia, Agatha, Lucy, Barbara, Pricilla, Praxedes, Dorothy, Domitilla, and so many more.
Modern
The historic heroism of those women and girls echoes in our more recent history too. Saint Maria Goretti, Marietta (little Maria), as her family and friends called her, was beatified by Pope Pius XII on April 27, 1947, and then canonized by him three years later, as a martyr for purity. She came from a very poor Italian farm family of five children. Her father died young of malaria and her mother struggled to support the family by share-cropping in the area of Nettuno, near Anzio and the sea. Maria was known for her hard and uncomplaining work, her deep prayer life, and her constantly great and unfeigned joy, which helped keep her family and neighbors smiling and happy despite their difficult lives.
In those days children received their first Holy Communion late. She received hers in 1902 when she was 11. She only received Holy Communion once more in that year before her death. One day she was sent back to the house by her mother, who was working in the field, to prepare dinner and to mend some clothing. While she was sitting on the steps of the house mending a shirt, an 18-year-old neighbor boy, Alessandro, came by on a cart, ran up the steps and dragged her into a bedroom, tore off her dress and tried to rape her. She kept saying, "No, No, it is a mortal sin." Enraged, Alessandro grabbed a knife from the kitchen and repeatedly stabbed Maria and then fled. She was found soon after and rushed to the hospital, where it was determined that her wounds were fatal. She died 24 hours later, but not before she received her third Holy Communion, as Viaticum, with the utmost devotion. She asked about Alessandro and spontaneously said she forgave him and said she would pray for him and for his conversion, and told her mother that she would pray for her and the family in heaven too.
Conversion
Alessandro was caught, convicted, and sentenced to 30 years at hard labor. Initially he was unrepentant, but one night he claimed he saw in a dream Maria offering him flowers and pardon, and this changed his life. He was a model prisoner and was released on parole after 27 years. He immediately went to Maria's family to tell of his sorrow and then entered a strict monastery as a penitent and spent the rest of his life in severe fasting, prayers (often all through the night), and in the heaviest daily physical penance. He is acclaimed by some as a saint himself because of his repentance and subsequent lifestyle. Maria's mother and siblings had the rare privilege of being present in Saint Peter's Square in Rome when their daughter and sister was declared a saint and raised to the honors of the altar. Saint Maria's body awaits the resurrection of the just underneath the high altar in a beautiful basilica built in her honor in Nettuno.
Uganda
Another more recent group of saints who have an important relevance and message concerning purity for our culture today are the holy martyrs of Uganda, who were beatified in 1920 and canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1964. Saints Charles Lwanga, Joseph Mkasa, and their companions were tortured and put to death by a homosexual king because of their refusal to participate in and condone his sins of unnatural vice.
The first Catholic missions in Uganda were established in 1879 by the White Fathers of Africa. They met with great success and the native people flocked to baptism and to the Catholic Church, becoming converts of the sincerest and deepest spirituality. The first king the missionaries encountered there, King Mtesa, was friendly to them. However, after his death, he was succeeded by a different kind of pagan, King Mwanga, who was a hater of Christianity and kept a harem of adolescent boys for his homosexual pleasure. For fear the British colonial authorities might interfere in his lifestyle, the king murdered a group of Anglican missionaries to keep his sodomy quiet. For this and for his debauchery, he was publicly reproved by a brave Catholic boy, Saint Joseph Mkasa, whom the king originally wanted to put in charge of the harem. He had Mkasa beheaded immediately.
Finding out that a Catholic layman named Matthias Murumba had been instructing some his harem boys in Christianity and that another layman named Andrew Kaga had been doing the same, the king had them both seized. He then summoned all his harem boys in front of him and told those who were Christians to separate themselves from the others. Then he asked them if they intended to remain Catholics. They shouted, "We are Catholic Christians to the death." The furious king had them all taken out of the village and along with Murumba and Kaga had them stripped naked, wrapped in straw mats and set afire. One of the king's executioners was the father of one of the boys, Saint Mbaga. He was furious at his son for not submitting to the king's sexual perversion, but did not want to see him burn, so he broke his son's neck killing him before setting the others on fire. There were 21 martyrs in all, 17 of whom were the young harem boys who refused to commit sins of homosexuality, knowing that God revealed that such sins are intrinsically and inherently evil and exclude anyone who commits them from heaven (Galatians 5:19; Romans 1:26-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Colossians 3:5; etc.)
Saint Maria Goretti and Holy Martyrs of Uganda, pray for us!
