Also
known as Margarita of Cascia ,Rita La Abogada de Imposibles, Saint of the Impossible
Memorial 22 May 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 Beatified
1 October 1627 by Pope Urban VIII Canonized 24 May 1900
Patronage abuse victims, againts infertility, against
loneliness, against sickness, against sterility, against wounds, bodily ills,
desperate causes, difficult marriages, forgotten causes ,parenthood, victims of
physical spouse abuse, widows ,wounded people Representation
nun holding a crown of thorns, nun holding roses ,nun holding roses and figs,
nun with a wound on her forehead, Nun knealing with beam of light coming towards
her forhead Back to Saints Index
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