St. Rita of Cascia

Their story

Rita was born in 1381 in Roccaporena, a mountain village near Cascia in central Italy. From childhood she wanted to give her life to God as a nun, but her parents arranged for her to marry a young man named Paolo Mancini. Paolo had a violent temper and treated her harshly. For eighteen years Rita answered him with patience, kindness and prayer, and over time his heart softened. They had two sons. Those were days of bitter family feuds, and one day Paolo was murdered. Rita forgave his killers, but her two sons swore to avenge their father's death. Rita prayed that God would keep them from committing murder, even if it meant taking them from this world. Within a year both sons died of illness, reconciled with God. Rita, now alone, asked to enter the Augustinian convent in Cascia, but she was turned away, partly because of the feud. She did not give up. She worked to bring the feuding families together, and once peace was made, the nuns accepted her. Rita lived in the convent for about forty years, devoted to prayer, penance and caring for the sick. In her later years a wound appeared on her forehead, as if from a thorn of Christ's crown, and it stayed with her until her death. A famous story tells that as she lay dying in winter, she asked for a rose from her family's garden, and one was found blooming in the snow. She died on May 22, 1457, and was canonized in 1900. She is called the saint of the impossible and is a friend to those in hard marriages and broken families.