Feast Day: May 22
Also known as
Margarita of
Cascia; Rita La Abogada
de Imposibles
Profile
Daughter of
Antonio and Amata Lotti; known as Peacemakers of Jesus, they had Rita
late in life. From her early youth, Rita visited the Augustinian
nuns at Cascia, and showed interest in a religious life. However, when
she was twelve, her parents betrothed her to Paolo Mancini, an ill-tempered,
abusive individual who worked as town watchman, and was dragged into the
political disputes of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Disappointed but
obedient, Rita married him when she was 18, and was the
mother of twin sons.
She put up with Paolo's abuses for eighteen years before he was ambushed and
stabbed to death. Her sons swore vengeance on their
father's killers, but through Rita's prayers and interventions, they
forgave the offenders.
Upon the deaths of her sons, Rita again felt the call to religious life.
However, some of the sisters at the Augustinian
monastery were relatives of her husband's assassins, and she was denied
entry for fear of causing dissension. Asking for the intervention of Saint
John the Baptist, Saint
Augustine of Hippo, and Saint
Nicholas of Tolentino, she managed to bring the warring factions
together, not completely, but sufficiently that there was peace, and she was
admitted to the
monastery of Saint
Mary Magdalen at age 36.
Rita lived 40 years in the convent, spending her time in prayer and charity,
and working for peace in the region. She was devoted to the Passion, and in
response to a prayer to suffer as Christ, she received a chronic head wound
that appeared to have been caused by a crown of thorns, and which bled for
15 years.
Confined to her bed the last four years of her life, eating little more than
the Eucharist,
teaching and directing the younger sisters. Near the end she had a
visitor from her home town who asked if she'd like anything; Rita's only
request was a rose from her family's estate. The visitor went to the home,
but it being January, knew there was no hope of finding a flower; there,
sprouted on an otherwise bare bush, was a single rose blossom.
Among the other areas, Rita is well-known as a patron of desperate,
seemingly impossible causes and situations. This is because she has been
involved in so many stages of life -
wife,
mother,
widow, and
nun, she buried her family, helped bring peace to her city, saw her
dreams denied and fulfilled - and never lost her faith in God, or her desire
to be with Him.
Born
1386 at Roccaparena, Umbria,
Italy
Died
22 May
1457 at the
Augustinian convent at Cascia of
tuberculosis
Canonized
24 May
1900
Patronage
abuse victims,
against loneliness,
against sterility,
bodily ills,
desperate causes,
difficult marriages,
forgotten causes,
impossible causes,
infertility,
lost causes,
parenthood,
sick people,
sickness,
sterility,
victims of physical spouse abuse,
widows,
wounds
Prayers
Prayer I to...
Prayer II to...
Hymn to...
Representation
nun holding a crown of thorns;
nun holding roses;
nun holding roses and figs;
nun with a wound on her forehead
Images
Gallery of images of Saint Rita
[16 images, 310 kb]
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