Saint Rita of Cascia

Feast day : 22 May

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Rita of Cascia who lived during the period 1381 -1457 AD in Cascia, Umbria Italy. She was an Italian widow who later joined an Augustinian community of religious sisters where she was known for her life of prayer and mortification. Her life is an example of a model wife and mother who lived the Christian values and guarded the souls of her husband and sons through her prayers and virtues. At her canonization ceremony she was bestowed the title of Patroness of Impossible Causes. She is also the patroness of abused wives and heartbroken women and mothers.

Early life:

St. Rita was born in the small suburb of Cascia, Italy to Antonio and Amata Ferri Lotti, a charitable and pious Christian family. She was married at the young age of 12 to a noble man named Paolo Mancini. She was persuaded into this marriage by her parents against her wish to join a religious convent. Her husband turned out to be a rich, quick tempered, immoral man who had many enemies. Rita had to endure a lot of abuse at his hand for 18 years. But she patiently bore all the physical and verbal abuses for many years. She had two sons Giangiacomo Antonio and Paulo Maria whom she raised in Christian faith. Through her patient endurance and humility she was able to bring about a change of heart in her husband and transform his character. He soon sought peace with the Chiqui family with whom they had a long standing family feud. However, he was betrayed and murdered violently by a member of the feuding family. At the funeral, Rita gave a public pardon to his murderers and persuaded peace but her husband’s family members were keen on taking revenge. Soon they began to instil feelings of hatred in her sons and instigated them to take revenge for their father’s murder. Rita tried to dissuade her sons from committing such mortal sin and losing their souls to hell. When she realised her efforts were failing, she prayed to God to take her sons rather than make them submit to mortal sin of murder and lose their souls. The following year her two sons died of dysentery.

Monastic life:

After the death of her husband and sons, at the age of 36, Saint Rita desired to join the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene in Cascia. But she was turned away because the nuns feared that the reputation of her family would harm their monastery. She still persisted in her cause and so the nuns said they could take her in if she could reconcile the feuding families of her husband and Chiqui family. Rita sought the intercession of her patron saints St. John the Baptist, St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Nicholas of Tolentino to assist her in this difficult task. Soon there was a plague in Italy and her husband’s brother who was keen on avenging her husband’s death was infected. On his sick bed he gave up his desire to continue the feud and pursued peace with the Chiqui family. Thus the longstanding family feud ended.

There is another legend about Saint Rita’s admission into the monastery. It is believed that the nuns still refused to take her in because she was not a virgin. But she was miraculously transported into the monastery by her three patron Saints. This was a miracle because the monastery was a cloistered convent and with the doors locked, there was no way that she could have entered into the courtyard. This miracle made them change their mind and admit her into the convent.

St. Rita continued in the monastery for the next 40 years of her life serving all and leading a life of prayer and penance. It was during this time that she received the partial stigmata. She used to often meditate on the Passion of Jesus and wished to suffer like him. Once when she was praying so, Jesus consented to give her a share in His suffering and sent a thorn from His crown to be lodged in her forehead. It was a noticeable wound that bled and caused her chronic headaches. It had a foul odour too. She suffered this wound for 15 years causing many to grow in their devotion to the Lord and honor His Passion. In the final four years of her life, she was bed ridden and did not eat much other than the Holy Eucharist. Yet she had the strength to teach, direct and counsel the younger sisters who spent time at her bedside.

There is another legend about her last days. A visitor from her hometown asked her if there was something she wished for and as a last request St. Rita asked for a single rose to be brought to her from her family’s estate. Since it was January and the middle of winter the request was seen as impossible. However when the visitor arrived back at her family’s estate there was a rose bush with a single rose in blossom!

Saint Rita died of tuberculosis on 22 May 1457.

After death:

After her death, the wound on her forehead gave a beautiful odour one that permeates the convent even today. Her incorrupt body is kept in the Basilica of St. Rita at Cascia. There are many mystical events that still occur at the Shrine where her incorrupt body is kept. Her life is an example of a model wife and mother who lived the Christian values and guarded the souls of her husband and sons through her prayers and virtues. At her canonization ceremony she was bestowed the title of Patroness of Impossible Causes. She is also the patroness of abused wives and heartbroken women and mothers.

Prayers to St. Rita: