Only a few saints had the opportunity to live a life consecrated to God in a married religious state. St. Rita from Cascia, fulfilling the will of God and the wishes of her parents, in her life, experienced the life of a young girl, a devoted wife, a loving mother, a grieving widow, and finally a humble religious.
St. Rita – Margherita Lotti, was born in 1371 in Rocaporena, a small village 5 km from the city of Cascia, in a well-placed and wealthy family of highly respected representatives of the free city of Cascia, who was entrusted with difficult cases of reconciling rivals to establish peace, or at least prevent cruel murders. Margherita was the desired and expected child that was born to the couple after several years of childless marriage.
God specially protected Rita from an early age. Legend has it that on the fifth day after birth, the little girl was in the cradle. Her parents worked in the fields. Several bees were flying over the cradle, repeatedly flying in and out of its mouth. When a family friend saw this, he tried to shoo the bees away with a violent movement. He allegedly injured himself with a sickle, but he didn’t care, rushing to save the child. The bees sat on his wound and he was miraculously healed.
Although it is only a legend, it confirms the great respect and popularity of this saint among people, which has lasted for centuries. Rita was not born with a halo but earned a reputation for sainthood throughout her life. She was an obedient daughter from childhood. The parents made sure that she had a good religious and general education, which at that time was not available to everyone.
Despite her desire to become a nun, in 1385, at the age of 14, she married Paolo di Ferdinando di Mancino. There are conjectures about whether it was a marriage out of duty or out of love. But this assumption has no bearing on Rita’s sanctity. The fact remains that Rita accepted the role of a wife without reservation. She continued to fully develop her virtuous life even in marriage. She was a role model for her husband – a great rioter, whose example enabled him to lead a full Christian life. Many were encouraged by her modesty, dedication, and willingness to help.
The Lord blessed this couple with the gift of two sons, probably twins or born a short time apart. After 18 years of marriage, a turning point occurred in the life of this saint. Her husband became the victim of a blood feud, the so-called vendettas. A new difficult period began for Rita – the life of a widow. Even at this time, she lived as a humble servant of God. She was greatly troubled by her sons’ desire to avenge their father’s death. She implored God that they would not be defiled by cruelty and that they would not be swept away by the spiral of hatred. God answered her prayer, albeit in a very painful way. He saved the souls of both boys. They died one after the other shortly after their father’s death from a mysterious illness.
Rita was left alone. However, dramatic events in her family and loneliness brought her closer and closer to the suffering Christ. However, the poor woman was not full of hatred, on the contrary, she prayed for those who caused her so much pain and for her dear deceased. But in her prayers, she did not forget the living either and begged that God’s peace would prevail over hatred. During this period of unceasing prayers, a strong desire to raise her love to a new level and another bridegroom – to Christ – matured in her. Her entry into the monastery was not easy, but after several rejections, she began a new life at the age of 36 in the Augustinian Monastery of St. Mary Magdalene.
If you expected that by entering the religious order, Rita’s childhood dream came true and she lived a beautiful, peaceful, and comfortable life behind the walls of the monastery – you are mistaken. Forty years of monastic life were filled with pain and suffering. However, she begged the Lord for this suffering. She longed to participate in Christ’s sufferings, and God granted them to her in abundance. In addition to the self-mortification of her body and countless humiliations from fellow sisters, God gave her a “precious gift” – a stigma on her forehead – the thorn of Christ’s crown. Rita lived this gift with great humility and never boasted about it. She spoke little about her mark and simply as a wound. The stigma of St. Rita broke every rule in the history of stigmas: she festered and smelled foul, but at the same time she remained localized and did not infect other tissues. Precisely because of the smelly stigma, St. Rita experienced incredible humiliation and abandonment.
On the night of May 21 to 22 in 1447, at the age of 76, the soul of St. Rita left a body emaciated by suffering on earth and went to meet her beloved bridegroom – Christ. At that moment, according to legend, the monastery bells rang out inexplicably. In this way, as if from a heavenly impulse, they called people to come and honor the holy sister Rita. Shortly after her death, the first miracles began to happen at her intercession.
St. Rita has been worshipped for centuries as a patroness in hopeless situations. Many miracles happened at her intercession. It was canonized in 1900. Today, Cascia is one of the largest pilgrimage sites in Italy, it is the center of veneration of St. Rites and place of reconciliation.
Biographies of St. Rita are shrouded in many legends that spread along with her growing esteem. Remo Piccolo mini and Natalino Monopoli, therefore, undertook a difficult task. These two Italian Augustinians wrote a biography which, as far as possible, they supported with historical facts and authentic photographs.
Saint Rita – a breath of forgiveness
