Saint Rita of Cascia

The Life of Saint Rita 

An attractive young girl of eighteen, who wanted to be a nun, but whose parents forced her to marry a man who later was murdered. A mother of two children for whose death she prayed; a widowed mother who later became a nun; a nun for forty-four years who bore on her forehead a mark of Our Lord’s passion; such was this interesting woman! Someone who probably has experienced every problem that we encounter and who knows just how we feel. Yes, this is our patroness, Saint Rita.

In 1381, Antonio and Amata Mancini, both late in life after years of waiting and praying, had a daughter. She grew to be an attractive young lady popular with the prominent young men of the city. To her elderly parents surprise, she stated that she wanted to be a nun. This they could not allow and, through mild and sometimes forceful persuasion, prevailed upon her to marry at the age of eighteen. Her husband was kind and friendly outside the home; inside he ridiculed and even beat her. For eighteen years she prayed for his conversion. Finally he came and asked her forgiveness, went to church, knelt before the priest in confession and asked God’s forgiveness.

The happiness of his wife was short lived, however; a few months later he was found on a lonely road stabbed to death. Even greater tragedy fell upon the young widow as she heard her sons swear to avenge their father’s death. To God she prayed that, rather than allow her sons to be murderers, He take them from her. The winter was intense. The two sons, looking for their father’s murderer, became ill, were brought back home. A priest was called and they died soon after.

Many months later the widow applied to the monastery. At least three times her petition was not accepted because she was too old. Finally, returning to the monastery late at night after all the doors had been locked, she opened them without a key and, coming into the chapel before the Mother Superior and the whole community, asked again to be admitted. They took this as a sign from God and admitted her.

For forty-four years she lived a life of poverty, chastity and obedience in the monastery. In her forehead appeared a thorn like one in the crown of thorns of Our Lord. The intense pain she accepted as penance for her sins.

At the age of 76, in the midst of winter, she lay dying. From a nun kneeling by her bed she asked for a rose from the monastery garden. The nun thought that Rita was delirious, but to please her, she went to the garden and found roses blooming in the snow. For that reason she is often pictured holding a rose.

Through the years people have turned to her when all else seemed to fail. For this reason, 

she is affectionately known as the "The Patroness of Hopeless Cases"

Novena Prayer to St Rita of Cascia

Let all know when your prayers have been answered

O Holy Patroness of those in need, St. Rita,

whose pleadings before thy Divine Lord are almost irresistible ,

who for thy lavishness in granting favors hast been called the advocate of the hopeless and even of the impossible; St. Rita so humble, so pure, so mortified,

so patient and of such compassionate love for thy Crucified Jesus

that thou couldst obtain from him whatsoever thou askest,

on account of which all confidently have recourse to thee, expecting,

if not always relief, at least comfort; be propitious to our petition,

showing thy power with God on behalf of the suppliant; be lavish to us as thou hast been in so many wonderful cases,

for the greater glory of God, for the spreading of thine own devotion,

and for the consolation of those who trust in thee.

We promise, if our petition is granted, to glorify, thee by making known thy favor,

to bless and sing thy praises forever. Relying upon thy merits and power before the Sacred Heart of Jesus,

We pray: (here mention request) Obtain for us our request By the singular merits of thy childhood

By thy perfect union with the Divine Will

By the heroic sufferings during thy married life

By the consolation thou didst experience at the conversion of thy husband

By the sacrifice of thy children rather than see them grievously offend God

By thy miraculous entrance into the convent

By thy severe penances and thrice daily bloody scourgings,

By the suffering caused by the wound thou didst receive from the thorn of thy crucified Savior,

By the divine love which consumed thy heart,

By that remarkable devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, on which alone thou didst exist for four years,

By the happiness with which thou didst part from thy trials to join thy Divine Spouse,

By the perfect example thou gavest to people of every state of life.

Pray for us, O holy St. Rita, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Pray to St Rita and she will answer your prayers

Tell everyone once your prayers have been answered

SAINT RITA

The Saint of the Impossible

    ST. RITA is well known throughout these Isles of Faith.  Scores of municipalities and barrios bear her name.  The first priest to set foot in the Philippines was Father Urdaneta, an Augustinian Father, and St. Rita was an Augustinian Sister.

   Hundreds of Churches and Chapels are dedicated to this “Saint of the Impossible.” In a special way St. Rita Chapel, Manila, was the work of St. Rita.  When in 1917, it seemed that difficulties were insurmountable Father McErlain, first director of St. Rita's Hall, asked our Saint to perform the impossible and bring to life a home for Catholic young men.  In a short time, St. Rita Hall and Chapel was in existence.  The later has been the place of worship for thousands of young students who have passed happy days there, before the Blessed Sacrament and have had the great privilege of assisting at Daily Mass and of studying within the very shadow of our Hidden Guest.  What heart secrets have the walls of this student Chapel not heard?  How many lives have been changed there, how many firm resolution made?

BIRTH OF SAINT RITA

     The parents of our saint were married many years before a child was born to bless their union.  Recalling the example of the parents of Saint John the Baptist, they prayed for an offspring and as the shadows of life deepened, God blessed them with their first child in the year 1381.

     Umbria a province in the center of Italy was the scene of Rita's birth - a poor barrio indeed,” it would be termed in these Islands.

     The history of the period makes one believe that while heresy, wars and disorders of various kinds were rife, the birth of the saint compensated to God, at least in part, amidst surroundings so void of religious devotions.  Her name means “virtue and grace.”  Well did she measure up to this title.

INFANCY AND CHILDHOOD

     As with most saints, Rita's infancy and childhood were passed in the ordinary way though the little girl showed that she had the material out of which remarkable characters are moulded.

     Her attraction were the Augustinian saints, St. Augustine himself being her patron.  Often did the young child pray to this great sinner-convert saint for help.  As Rita had been born to parents late in life, she, too, had a special affection for St. John the Baptist, the saint who preceeded Christ, announced His Coming and baptized Jesus in the, river Jordan.  As St. John spent his years in a desert, fasting and contemplating, - than which there is no sweeter or truer joy, - so Rita liked to be alone, for she enjoyed solitude more than excursions and companionship.

     Children of worth always have deep and genuine affectionate love for their parents.  Being unable to do great things, they can only show filial devotion through their loving obedience, and Rita did this: as she was the only child she resolved to make up for other brothers and sisters; she would be obedient not only to commands but also to the merest suggestions.  She had not to be told; to read the mind of her parents was enough, and she considered the same an order.

     With fidelity to the small things she prepared herself for the greater.  She spent her years in a poor home, in a humble barrio as did Christ Jesus, obedient, doing the small things exceptionally well.  Such is the road that leads to sanctity.

MARRIAGE AND MOTHERHOOD

     Not all saints are in the convent.  Nor is it necessary to take the vows of a religious to be pleasing to God.  Many of the greatest saints never entered the solitude of the cloister.  The calendar of the canonized is filled with men and women who spent their years in the world, battling with opposition, doing their duty well.  The ranks of business, commercial endeavor, the various professions, medical, legal teaching, - these have their heroes, their heroines whose lives are best known to God.

     Rita wished to become a Madre.  But her parents had other plans.  What should she do?  It is often difficult to make a decision.  Generally, a true vocation ought not to be sacrificed.  “We ought to obey God rather than man” and “he that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” These questions worried the young girl who sought the cloister but she also wished to do the will of her parents.  The custom of the times was that a child must follow the will of the Parents.  There were abuses, it is true; men and women were forced into the convent and priesthood as others were kept out.  It is not unkind to suggest that perhaps the parents of Rita interfered with her vocation. In this very day, such a thing too often happen.

        At thirteen years of age, Rita married, - unhappily.  The name of her husband is not given.  His deeds were those of a man in whom respect for womanhood and common decency were unknown.  How many young women have bad the same experience?  Now measure too, the mental agony of Rita who wished to consecrate her purity, her virginity to God and then to find that her parents had arranged for a marriage with a man, certainly not kind, even questionably decent.

     But, the months and years wore on, and two children were born.  Days and weeks of trial passed and brutal agony they were for the young girl who would have been a Sister.  She was in the school of suffering and she knew bow to bear her Cross.  She was being tried in the fire of adversity and she needed patience, courage and determination.

        Anybody might picture the scenes of such a mother with such a husband.  Insults, blows and curses were borne with Christian resignation.  And then, the worst of all!  Her husband was murdered!  Rita forgave the murderers but her two sons were of another mind. They would avenge the murder of their father.  However, death intervened and the two boys bent to revenge were called by the Angel of Death before they could themselves be assassins.

    What a life for a young girl who would have been peaceful, happy and contented in the serenity of the cloister.

    It is a sterling example of what often comes to frustrated vocations.  It is the reward that parents receive, at times, for interfering with the grace of God.  But, for Rita, it was her Cross, it was her Calvary; it was the means God took to teach a lesson and give to other mothers a patroness who had tasted the bitterest cup of sorrow, a cruel husband and ungrateful children.

WIDOW

    Her husband dead, her two sons called to give an account of their lives, Rita, thirty-two years of age, was left alone. Her parents had died and her eighteen year of married life had taken the bloom of youth from her cheeks; but the years had taught her invaluable lessons, thy had brought her closer to her model, Christ Crucified.

NOVICE

     Some communities of Sisters accept widows, some do not.  Rita wished to become an Augustinian “Madre” but permission could not be obtained.  She applied and was refused.  She tried a second, a third time.  The story is told, that she prayed to St. John the Baptist and while on her knees, her patron saint came to her, led her through closed convent walls and brought her to the Chapel of the Sisters.  She was asked how she had passed through locked portals and she related her experience.  The Sisters could not now refuse.  She was accepted; she became a postulant, afterwards a novice.

CONVENT LIFE

     Convent life is not a bed of roses.  It is a garden of chosen flowers, of souls who prefer the Garden of Olives and the agony of Gethsemane.  To be a true Sister, to follow the rules and regulations, calls for heroic strength of character.  A recent Pope said that he would canonize immediately any Sister who obeyed exactly all the rules of the convent; this simply means that perfect obedience is the surest guarantee of sanctity.

     Rita was now where she had longed to be.  She was close to God, she was close to the Blessed Sacrament; she was in the company of other souls whose every breath being dedicated to Our Lord.

        For some twenty years, she was a Sister.  During the greater part of this time, she was forced to live alone, a punishment that was a joy to her.  The reason for her solitude was that she had a wound in her forehead.  It is said that while one day at prayer, Our Lord allowed her to participate in His Agony; Christ gave her a thorn from the crown of thorns with which His Sacred Head bad been pierced.

     Rita accepted the thorn which opened a wound in her forehead.  And when the wound became worse, when it began to fester and give off a bad stench, the Mother Superior ordered Rita to remain in her cell until the open sore would heal as the odor was too offensive for the other Sisters.  So for practically the remainder of her life, Rita lived alone.

VIRTUES

   Charity, purity, poverty, these were three virtues that adorned the Saint's religious life in a conspicuous way.  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind.” This is the first and the greatest commandment and the second is like this: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Charity is the beginning and end, not only of the life of a nun, but also of an ordinary Christian.

        “Sell what thou hast and give it to the poor and come, follow Me.” This injunction of Our Lord to the rich young man in the Gospel was Rita's slogan.  She accepted it and embraced it. And even behind convent walls, she found opportunities to practise the spirit of poverty in details, the small things which when heroically done make the mosaic of a life of holiness.

     “Blessed are the, clean of hearts for they shall see God” was not only part of the Sermon on the Mount.  It was the inspiration of this soul following her belated vocation who even amid seeming serenity had to fight serious temptations against purity.

DEATH AND AFTERWARDS

     Not as a “thief in the night” did death come to our saint.  She was prepared, fortified by the Last Sacraments, and her soul, cleansed, and purified, went to its Judge to receive the recompense promised to those who do the will of God here on earth.  St. Rita died May 22, 1452, at 77 years of age!  Then she began to live not only to the Sisters in the cloister who knew her but she began anew her life for the countless thousands who have made her their patroness and their guide.

     Death brought her body to the tomb; it hurried her soul to the celestial Court where she now enjoys the fruit of her sufferings, prayers and sacrifice. It has brought St. Rita into close companionship with people in every corner of the world, with Catholics who have reason to be grateful to her for favors received and petitions granted.

     The Philippines has been blessed with her intercession.  Hundreds and thousands in these Islands have felt the helping hand of the “Saint of the Impossible.”

     Cures without number have been accredited to her intercession.  It seems that she has especially taken under her protection young women, being mindful perhaps of her own unhappy girlhood when but thirteen years of age she was married to a brutal husband.

     More important than physical cures have been the spiritual helps she has so generously granted.  She has showered countless blessings on her devotees, on all who have sought her protection and aid.  On Palm Sunday, April 18th, 1900, she was canonized in Rome.  She became a saint in the full meaning of that cherished word.  “Saint of the Impossible,” she has been happy to bless those who have sought her intercession and she will continue to be the patroness and the helper of all who call upon her, who ask her intercession and assistance.

Prayer to St. Rita

Dear Rita, model Wife and Widow, you yourself suffered in a long illness showing patience out of love for God. Teach us to pray as you did. Many invoke you for help, full of confidence in your intercession. Deign to come now to our aid for the relief and cure of (name of sufferer). To God, all things are possible; may this healing give glory to the Lord. Amen.

Prayer to St. Rita

St. Rita, come to my aid! Faithful, loving wife and mother, humble, prayerful

widow and nun, because of my need, answer my call. St. Rita, come to my aid!

Beautiful rose born from the Savior's thorns, lead me far from anger and hate;

guide my heart on peaceful paths with charity to all. St. Rita, come to my aid!

Helper, healer, holy friend, hear my petition (make request). To Christ take this

 prayer, for He is my Lord, my God, my all, my hope in despair, my strength when

afraid. St. Rita, come to my aid! St. Rita, answer my call. Amen. 

St. Rita: The Other Saint of the Impossible

By Maureen McKew

While St. Jude is best known as the saint of impossible causes, St. Rita of Cascia has her own following. This quiet woman, who offered up her own sufferings to unite herself to the suffering Jesus, also is known to be a friend in heaven when all else fails. Her legend has a twist: Some say that when she helps, she occasionally asks for something in return.

Each year, on May 22, thousands of people from around the world travel to Italy and converge upon Cascia, a small town in Umbria. Their purpose: to pay homage to a woman who died more than 500 years ago, an obscure woman who spent 40 years as an Augustinian nun and was barely known outside her own little world. What did Sister Rita do to earn canonization and centuries of entreaties? Why is she often known as "the other" saint of impossible causes?

She suffered much and did it quietly. She faced family tragedies that are too familiar to modern society. Her husband was murdered. Her children were threatened. She was caught in a terrible family feud. Then, just as her life acquired a sense of peace and order, she herself received what appeared to be an affliction directly from God.

According to her biographer, Augustine Trape, Rita (probably christened Margherita) Lotti was born in the year 1381 in the small town of Roccaporena, not far from Cascia. Another biographer, the Rev. Gervase Corcoran, O.S.A., indicates her birth date as 1377.

She was the only child of an older couple, Antonia Lotti and his wife, whose name was believed to be Amata. During these years, Umbria was rife with family feuds and vendettas, so her parents pledged Rita, at the age of 14, to marry a young man named Paul (or possibly Ferdinand) Mancini. The actual marriage probably took place four years later.

According to traditional accounts, her husband was brutish; however, Father Corcoran and other recent biographers have found no historical evidence for this or for another tale: that she had wanted to become a nun in her youth but was forced to marry. She and her husband had two sons, who names were said to be Giangiacoma and Paolo.

Then the first tragedy struck. One evening, her husband was knifed to death in a place called Colgiacone, as he was returning home from Cascia. He might have been murdered as part of a vendetta or perhaps was caught up in political unrest. Rita was left with the fear that her young sons would be next or would die trying to avenge their father. Neither happened, however; the boys died in their teens, apparently from natural causes.

A new life

By about age 36, Rita was all alone. She found solace in prayer and asked to be admitted to a community of Augustinian nuns at the Convent of St. Mary Magdalene in Cascia. Her request was denied. Father Corcoran in his biography suggests this might have been due to the feuds that surrounded Rita's family and perhaps even reached inside the convent walls to family members under vows.

In order to win acceptance to the convent by settling the feuds, she took the remarkable and probably dangerous step of arranging a ceremony of reconciliation among the warring families. It worked, and peace reigned long enough for her to be accepted into the convent about the year 1407.

As a religious, Sister Rita offered much solace and assistance to those who came to the convent for help. She also ventured outside to visit people in their homes. This was probably the beginning of her identification as someone who helped lost causes.

About 1432, a wound like a thorn appeared in her forehead. She accepted her affliction as a participation in the suffering of Jesus, who was crowned with thorns in a mockery of his divine kingship. This wound never healed and caused her great pain. In her last years, her sufferings grew and finally on May 22, 1447, she died. She was about 70 years of age.

Almost immediately, reports circulated of miracles attributed to her intercession. Interestingly, she was canonized only recently, in 1900.

The patroness of the impossible

There are several stories connected with St. Rita that might explain her reputation as a saint of impossible causes. As a novice in the convent, she was given a task to show her obedience. She was asked to water a dry stick. Under her care, it grew into a vine. Another story concerns her desire to go on a pilgrimage to Rome. Her superiors were reluctant to allow the journey because of her unsightly, festering head wound. Mysteriously, the wound disappeared, only to return when she completed her pilgrimage.

The third is perhaps the most famous story connected with St. Rita. As she lay dying in January 1447, a relative visited her. Rita made a startling request. She asked the visitor to bring her a rose from the garden she had tended years before as a young wife and mother. Thinking Rita's mind had failed, the relative went to the garden and there she found one beautiful rose blooming in the midst of the dead garden. She rushed back and gave it to the dying nun, who passed it around to her companions so they might savor its fragrance. The rose, like Rita herself, was a thing of beauty, but it carried thorns.

Rita never wrote a great theological tract. She didn't found a religious community. She was a quiet woman who suffered greatly from the hatred and vindictiveness of others. Rather than become bitter, she affected reconciliations between people and gave them comfort.

PRAYER TO SAINT RITA

O powerful St. Rita, you are called the Saint of the Impossible. In this time of need I come to you with confidence. You know my trials, for you yourself were many times burdened in this life. Come to my help, pray with me, intercede on my behalf before the Father. I know that God has a most generous heart and that He is a most loving Father. Join your prayers to mine and obtain for me the grace and assistance I desire:

(here mention your request)

I promise to use this favor, when granted, to better my life, to proclaim God's mercy, and to make you widely known and loved. Amen

Saint Rita Shrine