ST RITA OF CASCIA; FEAST DAY 22nd MAY

 ST RITA OF CASCIA

FEAST DAY 22nd MAY

St Rita is a pretty formidable saint: she is the patroness of impossible causes, along with St Jude, abused wives and heartbroken women. She is an intercessor for challenging marriages, for saving difficult children, feuding relatives, spiritual mothers and vocations.

St Rita is another example of those strong, faithful and just women who seem to prevail in Catholic history. She was born Margherita Lotti in 1381 in Cascia, (near Umbria, Italy), to parents who are described as noble people, such that they were called Conciliatore di Cristo, (Peacemakers of Christ). She was married young - Wikipedia says at 12, another account at 18 years of age - in an arranged marriage by her parents. Her husband, Paolo Mancini, was renowned as a quick-tempered and immoral man who had many enemies in the region of Cascia. Rita endured his insults, infidelities and abusive behaviour for many years. God blessed the marriage with two sons. It lasted 18 years, during which Rita was recounted as a model wife and mother who made efforts to convert her husband from his abusive behaviour. (1)

At the time, there was a feud between the Chiqui and Mancini (her husband's), families, known as "La Vendetta". The vendetta was part of the larger political dispute between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Paolo Mancini took part in the feud and the society was divided according to loyalties, vengeance sought for slights against family honour.

"In the end, after years of suffering, St. Rita’s humility and patience converted her cruel husband. Despite his miserable cruelty, she rendered him good and not evil. She would study his temper and find opportunities to help him to understand how great was his offence against God, and 'how little he thought of his intelligence to allow himself to become the prey and the slave of anger and passion.'" (Fr. Joseph Sicardo, O.S.A.)(2)

"Her husband became a changed man, turning from a vicious and cruel person to a more just and kind husband and father. 'Rita was a joyful mother bestowing all her affection and love on her little sons and their father. Joy and happiness filled the atmosphere of their home." (3)

Rita helped the community, visiting the sick and assisting with the spiritual needs of her neighbours. Reportedly, Rita restored many sick people to health by reciting one single “Hail Mary” by their bedsides. She would console the suffering by saying to them:

'Place all the weight of your trials and tribulations on the shoulders of Jesus Christ. He will carry them for you. Remember, He once carried a heavy cross.' (4)

She dissolved enmities and hatred among her neighbours and was known as a peacemaker. (5)

Through her kindness and patience she was able to influence her husband to to the extent that he renounced the feud between the two families so that he no longer sought to instigate violence.

However, although he had became a better person, in his past life he had made many enemies. He was ambushed and violently murdered by Guido Chiqui, a member of the feuding family. Rita gave a public pardon to her husband’s murderers. However, her husband's brother, Bernardo, in keeping with the mentality of La Vendetta, swore vengeance on the murderers, seeking to incite Rita’s two sons to exact vengeance – (shades of Romeo and Juliet).

Bernardo took the two sons to live with him at the ancestral home of the Mancini family, where they became influenced by their uncle and became drawn in to the feud. Rita, fearing that her sons would lose their souls, tried to dissuade them from this way of thinking, but to no avail; she asked God to remove her sons from the cycle of vendettas and to prevent them committing mortal sin. Her sons died of dysentery within the year, which some believe was God’s way of saving their souls. Although Rita had lost her sons in this life, she had saved them for eternity.

After the death of her husband and sons, Rita sought to join the Monastery of St Mary Magdalene in Cascia but was turned away -some of the sisters at the Augustinian monastery belonged to the Chiqui family, and therefore were relatives of her husband’s murderers. She was denied entry for fear of dissension within the community, whereby the feud would be taken into the monastery.

The Mother Superior of the Convent gave her a task before they would accept her entry: that of reconciling her husband’s murderers. Rita implored three patron saints, St John the Baptist, St Augustine of Hippo and St Nicholas of Tolentino, to assist and she set about establishing peace between the hostile families of Cascia. She was able to reconcile the two families and entered the monastery at the age of 36.

Rita lived for 40 years in the convent, spending her time in prayer and charity and working to establish peace in the region. She was devoted to the Passion. When she was about 60 years old, she was meditating before an image of Christ crucified when a small wound appeared on her forehead, in the shape of a wound from a thorn. She bore this sign (a partial stigmata) for 15 years, until her death and even after.

Near the end of her life, in January, when she was confined to her bed, her cousin visited from her home town and asked her if she would like anything: Rita’s only request was a rose from her family’s estate. Her cousin went to the family home, and, being winter, knew there was no chance of finding a flower; but there, sprouted in an otherwise bare bush, was a single rose blossom. Her cousin brought the rose back to the convent to St Rita. The rose is therefore part of the symbolism and iconography of St Rita, as a result of this charming sign from the heavens. On her feast day, churches and shrines of St Rita provide roses to the congregation that are blessed by the priest after the Mass held that day.

She remained in the monastery until her death from tuberculosis on 22nd May 1457.

When St Rita died, the sisters noticed that the small wound on her forehead remained the same with drops of blood still reflecting light. Her body was exhumed three times, each time revealing that it was uncorrupted and each time, the wound on her forehead remaining the same, still with drops of blood reflecting the light. She was declared an incorruptible, and was canonised by Pope Leo XIII on 24 May 1900, with her feast day celebrated today, 22nd May.

(1) Wikipedia

(2) St Rita of Cascia: Hope for the Impossible! Kathleen Beckman: https://catholicexchange.com/st-rita-of-cascia-hope-for...(from which image is taken).

(3) Ibid.

(4) Ibid.

(5) Ibid.

Image from catholicexchange.com (above).