GREENSBORO — Second in a line that was quickly growing, Brigett Mottram pressed a rosary to the glass-encased casket of the Catholic Church’s youngest canonized saint in the sanctuary at Our Lady of Grace on Friday. Then she bent down to pray.

“I feel Jesus closer to me than in a long, long time,” the teary-eyed retired teaching assistant said afterward.

As many as 10,000 people were expected to stop by the sanctuary before midnight Friday to see the remains of 11-year-old Maria Goretti, who was murdered in her small town of Italy in 1902.

St. Maria is celebrated for forgiving her killer on her deathbed and wishing aloud that he would find God. She is known as the Patroness of Mercy and popular with Catholic youth.

Organizers hope she will inspire forgiveness.

Although Catholics do not worship saints like Maria, they see God through them.

Their relics — essentially, the person’s remains and belongings — are held in reverence and believers want to get as close to them as possible.

In the case St. Maria, they pressed pictures, jewelry and rosary beads to the glass that separated them from her.

Catholics also believe that miracles can take place just from being in her presence.

David Little came from Archdale leaning on a cane.

“I just really want some relief,” Little said of a knee problem.

This is the first time the remains of St. Maria have traveled to the United States and only the second time she has left Italy.

She even had an escort from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. They consider her a dignitary of sorts, according to organizers.

“I couldn’t tell you who it is,” said Father Carlos Martins, who is traveling with St. Maria as her caretaker. “But we’ve been told there will be someone at every stop.”

The tour is part of the Pilgrimage of Mercy, which will visit about 40 parishes in the United States by the end of this year and has stopped on death row and prisons in several states.

The only other North Carolina stop is in Charlotte today.

Greensboro was the 33rd stop, Martins said. More than 200,000 people have stood in line to see St. Maria, including more than a dozen students from the Catholic Belmont Abbey College wearing “Got Monk” T-shirts.

As dawn broke Friday, off-duty police controlled traffic in the surrounding Sunset Hills neighborhood and along Market Street. A lane of traffic on Market Street was shut down in front of the church.

Priests had headsets to communicate with each other.

There were gasps and the stir of excitement when the specially-outfitted van carrying her remains pulled into the church parking lot shortly after 8 a.m.

“What a blessing,” Marla Spencer said as she made her way to the area where the van was idling. “We may not get this chance again.”

The actual remains of St. Maria are not visible through the glass casket. Instead, the casket holds a wax statue that contains her skeleton.

St. Maria was dressed in a long white robe with a blue ribbon, and a ring of flowers in her hair.

White-gloved members of the Knights of Columbus served as ushers.

“This is a day I will never forget,” said 13-year-old Suzie Dau, after she and pal Charmaine Pereira from Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School in High Point took pictures on their phones.

High Point’s Liesle Karam, who was seven months pregnant, was there with her young brood.

“They know they are meeting a friend of Jesus,” Karam said.

She had brought rings and jewelry belonging to family to press to the glass.

About 1,000 people had passed through the church’s sanctuary just before noon. Officials expected traffic to pick up as public schools let out and the work day ended.

Some in line asked for confession while others found their faith strengthened.

Martins, the caretaker, said he receives at least an email a day from someone — male and female — who has been raped and found the ability to forgive through Maria’s story. Maria’s attacker was described as unrepentant until he reportedly saw an apparition of his victim in his prison cell, some six years into his 30-year sentence.

“The miracles are the least of what excites me,” Martins said. “You can go to heaven with cancer in a leg. You cannot go with unforgiveness in your heart.”

Kristi Arthur, who had taken the day off work, had been in line clutching her rosary beads for more than three hours when police ushered the van to the tree-lined community parish. She was first in line, having arrived shortly before 5 a.m.

And then she got a call that her foster child had missed the bus.

Arthur wasn’t sure she would be able to come back.

Mottram took her rosary beads and telephone number and promised she would press the beads to the saint and get them to her. Her thoughts were the tune of the day.

“I’ve just made a new friend,” Mottram said.

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Contact Nancy McLaughlin at (336) 373-7049, and follow @nmclaughlinNR on Twitter.

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