Rita of Cascia
Rita of Cascia, OSA, was an Italian widow and Augustinian nun. After Rita's husband died, she joined a small community of nuns, who later became Augustinians, where she was known both for practicing mortification of the flesh and for the efficacy of her prayers. Various miracles are attributed to her intercession, and she is often portrayed with a bleeding wound on her forehead, which is understood to indicate partial stigmata.
Pope Leo XIII canonized Rita on 24 May 1900. Her feast day is celebrated on 22 May. At her canonization ceremony, she was bestowed the title of "Patroness of Impossible Causes". In many Catholic countries, Rita also came to be known as the patroness of abuse victims, couples and marriage difficulties, widows, and the sick. Her bodily remains lie in the Basilica of Santa Rita da Cascia.
Early life
Margherita Lotti was born in 1381 in the city of Roccaporena, a small hamlet near Cascia, Umbria, where various sites connected with her are the focus of pilgrimages. Her name, Margherita, means "pearl". She was affectionately called Rita, the short form of her baptismal name. Her parents, Antonio and Amata Ferri Lotti, were known to be noble, charitable people, who gained the epithet Conciliatori di Cristo.According to pious accounts, Rita was originally pursued by a notary named Gubbio, but she resisted his offer. She was married at age 12 to a nobleman named Paolo di Ferdinando di Mancino. Her marriage was arranged by her parents, a common practice at the time, despite her repeated requests to be allowed to enter a convent of religious sisters. Her husband, Paolo Mancini, was known to be a rich, quick-tempered, immoral man, who had many enemies in the region of Cascia. The marriage lasted for 18 years, during which she was remembered for her Christian values as a model wife and mother who made efforts to convert her husband from his abusive behavior.
Rita endured his insults, physical abuse, and infidelities for many years. According to popular tales, through humility, kindness, and patience, Rita was able to convert her
husband into a better person, more specifically renouncing a family feud known at the time as la Vendetta. Rita eventually bore two sons, Giangiacomo Antonio and Paulo Maria, and brought them up in the Christian faith. As time went by and the family feud between the Chiqui and Mancini families became more intense, Paolo Mancini became congenial, but his allies betrayed him, and he was stabbed to death by Guido Chiqui, a member of the feuding family.
Rita gave a public pardon at Paolo's funeral to her husband's murderers. Paolo Mancini's brother, Bernardo, was said to have continued the feud and hoped to convince Rita's sons to seek revenge. Bernardo convinced Rita's sons to leave their manor and live at the Mancini villa ancestral home. As her sons grew, their characters began to change as Bernardo became their tutor. Rita's sons wished to avenge their father's murder. Rita, fearing that her sons would lose their souls, tried to dissuade them from retaliating, but to no avail. She asked God to remove her sons from the cycle of vendettas and prevent mortal sin and murder. Her sons died of dysentery a year later, which pious Catholics believe was God's answer to her prayer, taking them by natural death rather than risk them committing a mortal sin punishable by Hell.
Later life
After the deaths of her husband and sons, Rita desired to enter the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene in Cascia, but was turned away. Although the convent acknowledged Rita's good character and piety, the nuns were afraid of being associated with her due to the scandal of her husband's violent death and because she was not a virgin. However, Rita persisted in her cause and was given a condition before the convent could accept her; she was given the task of reconciling her family with her husband's murderers. She implored her three patron saints to assist her, and she set about the task of establishing peace between the hostile parties of Cascia. Popular religious tales recall that the bubonic plague, which ravaged Italy at the time, infected Bernardo Mancini, causing him to relinquish his desire to feud any longer with the Chiqui family. She was able to resolve the conflicts between the families, and at the age of 36, was allowed to enter the monastery.Pious Catholic legends later recount that Rita was transported into the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene via levitation at night into the garden courtyard by her three patron saints. According to Cavallucci, the abbess of the monastery put Rita's vocation and obedience to the test by making her water a dry vine bush in the cloister of the monastery. The wood, after some time, came back to life and bore fruit. In the same cloister, today, a vine dating back to the 19th century remains. During her 40 years of monastic life, Rita not only dedicated herself to prayer, penance,and fasting in the monastery, but also she often went out to serve the poor and sick of Cascia.
She remained at the monastery, living by the Augustinian Rule, until her death from tuberculosis on 22 May 1457.
Veneration
Early cult
Father Agostino Cavallucci from Foligno wrote the first biography of Rita based on oral tradition. The Vita was published in 1610 by Matteo Florimi in Siena. The work was composed long before her beatification, but the title page nevertheless refers to Rita as already "blessed". Another Acta or life story of the woman was compiled by the Augustinian priest Jacob Carelicci.Rita was also mentioned in a 1641 French volume on important Augustinians by Simplicien Saint-Martin.
Sainthood
Rita was beatified by Pope Urban VIII in 1626. The pope's private secretary, Fausto Poli, had been born some from her birthplace and much of the impetus behind her cult is due to his enthusiasm.She was canonized on 24 May 1900 by Pope Leo XIII. Her feast day is 22 May. The three required miracles that led to her canonization are: The pleasant scent emanating from her incorruptible body; the cure of smallpox, and the sudden recovery of sight of the young Elizabeth Bergamini, who had been staying for four months in the convent of Cascia, asking for Blessed Rita's intercession; and finally, the complete and sudden healing of Cosma Pellegrini in 1887, suffering from chronic catarrhal gastroenteritis and an incurable hemorrhoidal affection, after having received a vision of the Blessed Rita on his deathbed.
On the 100th anniversary of her canonization in 2000, Pope John Paul II noted her remarkable qualities as a Christian woman: "Rita interpreted well the 'feminine genius' by living it intensely in both physical and spiritual motherhood."
Patronage
Rita has acquired the reputation, together with St. Philomena and St. Jude, as a saint of impossible causes. She is also the patron saint of sterility, abuse victims, loneliness, couple and marriage difficulties, parenthood, widows, the sick, bodily ills, and wounds.In the 20th century, a large sanctuary was built for Rita in Cascia. The sanctuary and the house where Rita was born are among the most active pilgrimage sites of Umbria. Augustinians kept Rita's incorrupt body over the centuries, and it is venerated today in the shrine at Cascia. Part of her face has been slightly repaired with wax. Many people visit her tomb each year from all over the world.
The National Shrine of Saint Rita of Cascia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was built in 1907 and is a popular pilgrimage and devotional site.
A church dedicated to St. Rita Church is located in Nanthirickal, Kollam district, in the state of Kerala, India. It is the only church in Asia to have relics of Saint Rita.
Iconography
Various religious symbols are related to Rita. She is depicted holding a thorn or crown of thorns, holding a large Crucifix, often with roses. She may also have a forehead wound.The forehead wound
When Rita was about 60 years of age, she was meditating before an image of Christ crucified. Suddenly, a small wound appeared on her forehead, as though a thorn from the crown that encircled Christ's head had loosened itself and penetrated her own flesh. It was considered to be a partial stigma, and she bore this external sign of union with Christ until her death in 1457.At the time of her death, the sisters of the convent bathed and dressed her body for burial. They noticed that her forehead wound remained the same, with drops of blood still reflecting light. When her body was later exhumed, her forehead wound was found to still remain the same, with the glistening light reflected from the drops of blood. Her body showed no signs of deterioration. Over several years, her body was exhumed two more times. Each time, her body appeared the same. She was declared an incorruptible after the third exhumation. Relics were taken at that time as is the custom in the Catholic Church in preparation for sainthood.
Roses
Near the end of her life, Rita was said to be bedridden at the convent. While visiting her, a cousin visiting from Roccaporena asked if she desired anything from her old home. Rita responded by asking for a rose from the garden. It was January, and her cousin did not expect to find one due to the season, but when her relative went to the house, a single blooming rose was found in the garden, and her cousin brought it back to Rita at the convent.St. Rita is often depicted holding roses or with roses nearby. On her feast day, churches and shrines of St. Rita provide roses to the congregation that are blessed by the priest during mass.