SAINT RITA of Cascia ( 1456 )

Saint Rita was born in 1386 near Cascia, Italy, of humble parents, Anthony and Amata Mancini. They we advanced in age and merited for their charity the surname of "Peacemakers of Jesus Christ".

Rita had a life long dream of becoming a nun. Like St. Catherine of Siena never knew how to read and write well. She aspired to the religious life and wanted to follow Christ totally. But in obedience to the will of her parents she married at the age of twelve, deeming that in obeying them, she was fulfilling God's will.

Her parents' choice resulted in unfortunate marriage. She endured for eighteen years the abuses of a violent, cruel husband with unflinching patience and decency. She bore his insults and infidelity with tears in secret and prayers. Rita, suffered also the rascality of two sons who were touched by their father's devilish attitude. Eventually there came a day when her husband repented and begged her forgiveness for all the suffering he had caused her: but shortly afterwards in a horrific way he was carried home dead, killed by his enemies. 

Her sons vowed to avenge their father's death. In an agony of sorrow Rita prayed that they might die rather than  commit murder. In her concern for the salvation of their souls, she prayed fervently in tears: "Jesus crucified, take them innocent to heaven if it is humanly impossible to keep them from becoming guilty of grave sin."  Suddenly they fell ill. The poor mother nursed them lovingly trying to save their lives, but to no avail. The boys died before they obtain the revenge.

Rita, left alone free in the world, longed to pursue her dear lifelong dream of becoming a nun. Not only a nun but a saint. For that her suffering was not over. She applied to enter the Augustinian convent of St. Mary Magdalene, but she was refused three times because she had been married, although  orders customary received widows. Only after six years did they agree and install her as a nun. It was not so easy, but there was a miracle in need indeed.  It was said, that three heavenly visitors, Rita had often turned, were at hand the night she went one more time to the convent to intercede: Saints John the Baptist, Augustine, and Nicholas. They accompanied her to the convent, unbolted the lock of the secured door, left her inside, while the nuns were sleeping , and then disappeared. No human effort could unbolt that secured door.  After so obvious a miracle, she was accepted.

In the convent St. Rita submitted to authority the way she had shown as a daughter and wife. From childhood she had a special devotion to the suffering of our Lord. In her meditation, on Good Friday 1441 she experienced an intense desire to share in  the Lord's passion. She preoccupied  her imagination with the agony of the crown of thorns. She prostrated herself before a crucifix and begged Christ for some small share of his suffering. While she knelt, absorbed in prayer, one of the thorns from the crucifix was loosened as if by an invisible hand. It fell and implanted itself so deeply into Rita's forehead. It developed into an open wound. For fifteen years it caused her daily pain and its putrid odor embarrassed her frequently. In 1450, when she was preparing to visit Rome for the jubilee year, the wound temporarily healed. But it reappeared when she returned to Cascia and remained until her death.

From the brief profile left of her religious life and the many wonderful miracles, indeed she gained the title of " Saint of the Impossible". She died on May 22, 1457, and canonized in 1900. Her body has remained intact and incorrupt until modern times.