Which Saints Have Actually Been Raped?

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Aveinda

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I have a problem that I need help with. As a rape survivor I’m looking for a saint who has actually been raped (I feel this will help me to remember that there is hope after rape). Many of the patronesses of rape victims were only threaten with rape but not actually raped. I just don’t get this…

Thank you for our help HUGS

P.s If you feel that rape survivors are weak, defiled or impure please don’t answer. Thank you
 
Off hand I don’t know of any canonised saints that have been raped but the likes of Maria Goretti was murdered by her rapist as she fought him off, had he not injured her so badly he would have succeed in his attempt, some say he actually did succeed.

P.S The only one who is at fault in a case of rape is the rapist for their evil actions. May God bless and keep you and give you the healing you need. I admire your bravery in speaking, however anonymously, of such a traumatic event.

God Bless you are in my prayers
 
I am actually going to research this…I feel your pain.
Prayers to you. :crossrc:
 
St. Joan of Arc might have been raped when she was being unjustly held in prison. Historians are 100% sure though. Nevertheless shes is a wonderful Saint whos prayers have greatly benefited many men and women espically those who have faced attacks.
 
May God bless you and comfort you Aveinda.I am so sorry for your awful suffering.God loves you very much.Sending you hugs x

I felt inspired to Google this for you and found that St.Wulfrida was raped by St Edgar and their daughter St.Edith was the result.Her story can be found below.The ironic thing is it states that the Clifton Diocese comemorates her…I have just moved to the Clifton Diocese from Portsmouth Diocese.

Celtic and Old English Saints Feast Day 16 September

St. Edith

Born at Kensington, England, in 961; died 984. Saint Edith was the
illegitimate daughter of King Edgar and Saint Wulfrida (Wilfrith, f.d.
September 9), a noblewoman whom he had been raped. (The king underwent
a seven-year penance for this crime according to the “vita” of Saint
Dunstan (f.d. May 19).) After the death of his wife, Edgar entreated
Wulfrida to marry him. She rejected his solicitations and took the
religious veil at Wilton instead. Thus, Saint Edith entered the convent
as a baby and never left it, so that, in the words of the “Roman
Martyrology”, “she rather knew not this world than forsook it.”

Although Edith was always sheltered from the allurements of the world,
Wulfrida also raised her carefully and taught her the
lessons of Christian perfection. Edith chose to be professed at the age
of fifteen in the presence of her father, who gave his
permission only after a struggle. Thereafter Edith combined a life of
prayer with one of active charity. She fed the poor, tended the sick,
and dressed their most loathsome sores.

Edith expressed her great devotion to the crucified Christ through the
constant repetition of the Sign of the Cross. She also
undertook austerities, e.g., abstinence and the wearing of a hair shirt.

Three times she refused the abbacy of three different convents,
preferring to remain a simple nun at Wilton under the direction of her
mother, who was abbess. When her father and then her half-brother Saint
Edgar the Peaceful (f.d. July 8) died, she was pressed by her brother’s
adherents to accept the throne, but refused it.

Before her death at the age of 22, Edith built the church of Saint Denis
at Wilton. During its dedication, Dunstan cried profusely because he
had a premonition of her death. Less than two months later Saint
Dunstan assisted at her deathbed. She was buried in Saint Denis.
William of Malmesbury, writing at the beginning of the 12th century,
relates that her feast was kept with great devotion (Attwater2,
Benedictines, Coulson, Husenbeth).

In art, Saint Edith is depicted as a royal nun (not an abbess) giving
alms to the poor. She may also be shown with a purse or
washing the feet of the poor (Roeder). Saint Edith is commemorated in
the diocese of Clifton and venerated at Wilton (Benedictines, Roeder).

The Holy Well named for her, located at the village where she spent her
childhood.

megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=8268
 
Aveinda said:
I have a problem that I need help with. As a rape survivor I’m looking for a saint who has actually been raped (I feel this will help me to remember that there is hope after rape). Many of the patronesses of rape victims were only threaten with rape but not actually raped. I just don’t get this…

Thank you for our help HUGS

P.s If you feel that rape survivors are weak, defiled or impure please don’t answer. Thank you
Click to expand...
I can’t think of a saint who was raped. However, St. Mary Magdelene was possibly a former prostitute and Mary of Egypt was a definitedly a former prostitute (NOT to say that rape = prostitution). My point is that even a reformed prostitute can become a saint. Hey, even St. Paul used to kill Christians before his “road to Damascus” conversion and he is one of the most well-known of saints.

I want to encourage you. The rape incident was not your fault. God loves you and meets you where you are. You can be your own special kind of saint. Maybe you’ll become the first saint who was actually raped. You can pray for this blessing. God can do great things in all circumstances. Trust in Him and He will lead you.
 
St. Maria Goretti is the patroness of youth and for the victims of rape.

I will post a link and keep you in my prayers.

God Bless
 
Born in Corinaldo, Ancona, Italy, on October 16 1890; her farmworker father moved his family to Ferrier di Conca, near Anzio. Her father died of malaria and her mother had to struggle to feed her children.

In 1902 an eighteen-year-old neighbor, Alexander, grabbed her from her steps and tried to rape her. When Maria said that she would rather died than submit, Alexander began stabbing her with a knife.

As she lay in the hospital, she forgave Alexander before she died. Her death didn’t end her forgivness, however.

Alexander was captured and sentenced to thirty years. He was unrepentant until he had a dream that he was in a garden. Maria was there and gave him flowers. When he woke, he was a changed man, repenting of his crime and living a reformed life. When he was released after 27 years he went directly to Maria’s mother to beg her forgiveness, which she gave. “If my daughter can forgive him, who am I to withold forgiveness,” she said.

When Maria was declared a saint in 1950, Alexander was there in the St. Peter’s crowd to celebrate her canonization. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1950 for her purity as model for youth.

She is called a martyr because she fought against Alexander’s attempts at sexual assault. However, the most important aspect of her story is her forgiveness of her attacker – her concern for her enemy extending even beyond death. Her feast day is July 6. St. Maria Goretti is the patroness of youth and for the victims of rape.

I hope this helps out for any one that was looking for a patroness of victims of rape.
God Bless You.
 
Aveinda said:
I have a problem that I need help with. As a rape survivor I’m looking for a saint who has actually been raped (I feel this will help me to remember that there is hope after rape). Many of the patronesses of rape victims were only threaten with rape but not actually raped. I just don’t get this…

Thank you for our help HUGS

P.s If you feel that rape survivors are weak, defiled or impure please don’t answer. Thank you
Click to expand...
My heart goes out to you, you amazing and beautiful woman. I hope that I may somehow help you with these words. The women you refer to as patrons of rape victims that were never actually violated has to be a little nuanced. These women and girls were not ordinary women and girls. They had consecrated themselves as virgins to God either publicly or privately. That is why their resistance to being raped was such a virtuous thing. Because their purity had been set aside especially to God. They died heroic deaths. And canonisation is there to set an example to the Christian faithful of heroic sanctity. Saint Maria Goretti resisted her rape not out of immediate concern for her virginity but for the soul of her attacker and died heroically with forgiveness in her eyes.

The Church does not believe that women that have been raped are weak, impure or in any way responsible for the act. But keep in mind that these saints had very special vocations. That is of consecrated virgins. What of those women that have been raped and survived? Saint Wulfrida has already been mentioned by tbcrawford.

The truth is that many saints and blessed persons have suffered abuse. Saint Agatha had her breasts destroyed which is certainly sexual abuse. Saint Josephine Bakhita suffered years of horrible abuse and slavery. I understand that it’s natural to seek a saint that has experienced the very same abuse that you have and Saint Wulfrida is there. But do not neglect the solace you can find in other saints that suffered abuse. For although the act is different the effects on us all are the same.

You have not done anything wrong. You are not responsible for this horrible crime committed against you. You are not a bad person for surviving or for not performing a heroic act. Your heroic act will be an entire life’s worth after the fact. Without a shadow of a doubt there are rape victims in heaven right now. They may not have names but we don’t need names in the communion of saints.

Keep tight to your rosary. Our Lady is there with you and for you!

Yours in Jesus and Mary,
OS.
 
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