It was Good Friday of 1432, St. Rita returned to the Convent deeply troubled, after hearing a preacher to recall the sufferings of the death of Jesus ardently and remained to pray before the crucifix in contemplation. In a rush of love, St. Rita asked Jesus to share at least part of her suffering. Then came the prodigy: St. Rita was pierced by one of the thorns of the crown of Jesus, who hit her forehead. It was an endless spasm. S. Rita brought the wound to the forehead for 15 years as a seal of love.
Saint Rita is one of the most loved saints and is the object of an extraordinary popular devotion because she is very loved by the people who feel she is very close to the “normality” of everyday life she lived, first as a bride and mother, then as a widow and finally as an Augustinian nun.
Very young she was married to an angry and brutal man with whom she had two children, but with her tender love and passion she managed to transform her husband’s character and make him more docile.
The husband was murdered and in a short time the children also followed him to the grave.
But she did not give in to the pain, the despair, the rancor or the desire for revenge; on the contrary, she succeeded heroically in sublimating her pain through the forgiveness of her husband’s murderers. She worked tirelessly to reconcile her husband’s family with the murderers, thus interrupting the spiral of hatred that had arisen.
He entered a convent and lived there the last 40 years of life in assiduous contemplation, penance and prayer, completely dedicated to the Lord.
Saint Rita, 15 years before her death, received the singular “thorn” of that wound that was painfully stamped on her forehead, which incessantly procured her the terrible pains and unheard-of suffering of the crowning of thorns.
Rita was presumably born in the year 1381 in Roccaporena, a village located in the municipality of Cascia in the province of Perugia, by Antonio Lotti and Amata Ferri. His parents were very believers and the economic situation was not comfortable but decent and peaceful.
The story of St. Rita was filled with extraordinary events and one of these was shown in her childhood.
The little girl, perhaps left for a few moments unattended in the cradle in the country while her parents worked the land, was surrounded by a swarm of bees. These insects covered the baby but strangely they did not punish her. A farmer, who at the same time had injured his hand with a scythe and was running to be treated, found himself passing in front of the basket where Rita was placed. Seeing the bees buzzing around the child, he began to chase them away but, to his great amazement, as he shook his arms to drive them away, the wound healed completely.
Tradition tells us that Rita had an early religious vocation and that an Angel descended from heaven to visit her when she retired to pray in a small attic.
Rita would have wished to become a nun but still a young girl (about 13 years old) her parents, now elderly, promised her in marriage to Paolo Ferdinando Mancini, a man known for his quarrelsome and brutal character. St. Rita, accustomed to duty, did not resist and went to marry the young officer presumably around 17-18 years.
From the marriage between Rita and Paolo, two male twin sons were born; Giangiacomo Antonio and Paolo Maria who had all the love, tenderness and care of their mother. Rita succeeded with her tender love and patience to transform her husband’s character and make him more docile.
The married life of St. Rita, after 18 years, was tragically broken with the murder of her husband, which took place in the middle of the night, at the Collegiacone Tower on her way back to Cascia.
Rita was very afflicted by the atrocities of the event, so she sought refuge and comfort in prayer with assiduous and fiery prayers in asking God for the forgiveness of her husband’s murderers.
At the same time, S. Rita undertook an action to achieve peace, starting with her children, who felt revenge for the death of their father as a duty.
Rita realized that the will of her children did not bow to forgiveness, so I pray to the Lord, offering her the life of her children, not to see them stained with blood. “They will die less than a year after their father’s death” ..
When S. Rita remained alone, she was just over 30 years old and she felt the desire to follow the vocation that she had wanted to accomplish to flourish and mature in her heart.
Rita asked to enter as a nun in the Monastery of St. Mary Magdalene, but for three times she was not admitted, as a widow of a murdered man.
Legend has it that St. Rita managed to overcome all the barriers and closed doors thanks to the intercession of: St. John the Baptist, St. Augustine and St. Nicholas of Tolentino who helped her to take flight from the “Scoglio” until to the Convent of Cascia in a way incomprehensible to you. The nuns convinced by the prodigy and her smile, welcomed her among them and here Rita stayed there for 40 years immersed in prayer.
For Rita the last 15 years were suffering without respite, his perseverance in prayer led her to spend even 15 days in a row in his cell “without speaking to anyone except God”, also carried the hair shirt that caused her suffering, moreover, he subjected his body to many mortifications: he slept on the ground until the end when he fell ill and remained ill in the last years of his life.
About 5 months after Rita’s passing, a winter day with a cold temperature and a snow cover covered everything, a relative visited her and asked to the Santa if she wanted something, Rita replied that she wanted a rose from her vegetable garden.When she returned to Roccaporena, her relative went to the small vegetable garden and was amazed when she saw a beautiful rose blossomed, took it and took it to Rita.
Thus S. Rita became the Santa of the “Spina” and the Santa of the “Rosa”.
St. Rita before closing her eyes forever, had the vision of Jesus and the Virgin Mary inviting her to Heaven. One of her sisters saw her soul rise to the sky accompanied by the Angels and at the same time the church bells began to play themselves, while a very sweet scent spread throughout the monastery and from her room a bright light shone as if there were entered the Sun. It was May 22nd, 1447.
S. Rita da Cascia was beatified 180 years after her death and proclaimed Saint 453 years after her death.
O God, author of peace and loving custodian of charity, look on our family benevolent and merciful. See, O Lord, how often it is in discord and how peace moves away from it. Have mercy on us. Make peace come back, because you can only give it to us.
O Jesus, King of Peace, listen to us for the merits of Mary Most Holy, Queen of Peace, and also for the merits of your faithful servant, Saint Rita who enriches herself with so much charity and sweetness to be an angel of peace wherever she saw discord. And you, dear Saint, pray to obtain this grace from the Lord on our family and on all the families in difficulty. Amen.
O glorious saint Rita, though you were married to obey your parents, you became an excellent Christian bride and a good mother. You also get God’s help to help me live my married life well. Pray for me to have the strength to keep faithful to God and my spouse. Take care of us, of the children the Lord wants to give us, of the various commitments we will have to face.That nothing disturbs our harmony. The angels of peace assist our house, remove discord and increase the understanding and love that unites the souls redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Grant that, even through your intercession, one day we come to praise God in heaven, in the Kingdom of eternal and perfect love.
At your birth, or Santa Rita, you had the symbolic name of a gem and a flower. Look with love to me that I am about to become a mother. You too became a mother of two children, whom you loved and educated as only a holy mother can do.Pray for the Lord to grant me the grace of the child, whom we await as a gift from heaven with my husband. From now on we offer it to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of Mary and we entrust it also to your protection. May the miracle of a new life blessed by God be fulfilled in joy.
O Immaculate Virgin, mother of Jesus and my mother, through the intercession of Saint Rita, help me in the sweet and serious responsibility of being a mother. I entrust to you, Mother, the children whom I love so much and for which I tremble, I hope and rejoice. Teach me how to guide them as Saint Rita, with a sure hand for God’s way. Make me tender without weakness and strong without hardness. Get me that loving patience that never tires and offers everything and endures for the eternal salvation of his creatures. Help me, Mother. Form my heart in the image of yours and let my children see in me a reflection of your virtues, so that, having learned from me to love you and follow you in this life, they will one day come to praise you and bless you in heaven. May Mary, Queen of Saints, arrange for the protection of Saint Rita for my children.
Saint Rita of Cascia, model of the brides, of the mothers of the family and of the nuns, I resort to your intercession in the most difficult moments of my life. You know that sadness often oppresses me, because I can not find the way out of so many painful situations. Hold me from the Lord the graces I need, especially the serene trust in God and the inner calm. Let me imitate your sweetness, your strength in rehearsals and your heroic charity and ask the Lord that my sufferings can benefit all my loved ones and that everyone can be saved for eternity.
and turn away the anxiety, which presses so hard on my heart.
at the Divin Heart of our Crucified Jesus.
in these my humble prayers and fervent desires.
God in heaven together with you for all eternity.
Saint Rita, Patron of desperate cases, pray for us.
Saint Rita, Advocate of impossible cases, intercede for us.
3 Pater, Ave and Gloria.
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