St. Rita

St. Rita of Cascia : 

St. Rita of Cascia Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow, Nun, Saint, Woman of Faithfulness and Forgiveness Copyrighted material that appears in this article is included under the provisions of the Fair Use Clause of the National Copyright Act, which allows limited reproduction of copyrighted materials for educational and religious use when no financial charge is made for viewing.

Saint of the Impossible : 

Saint of the Impossible Rita was born in the year 1381 in the village near Cascia, Italy.  Her parents considered her birth a very special gift from God, because she was born in their old age.  As a young girl Rita frequently visited an Augustinian convent and dreamed of joining their community.   Her parents, however, had already promised her in marriage, to a man named Paolo.  Rita accepted her parents' decision and felt that this as God's will for her. Traditionally girls weren’t given an education so Rita, like many other girls of her day didn’t know how to read or write.

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Her faith in God never waivered, she was convinced that He would open the right doors and close the wrong ones for her. At the age of 12 she married Paolo but felt it was an unwise decision. For the next 18 years she lived a life of pure hell. Her husband was an abusive drunk who committed adultery and taught their two sons to do the same. She spent as much time as she could praying for his conversion. Eventually he did repent and then tried to convince his sons that what he had taught them was wrong, but it was too late, they liked the life he had taught them and didn’t want to repent. Both Rita and Paolo restored their marriage and were very happy except for their worries about their sons, but that was short-lived. Because of Paolo’s conversion his drinking, quarrelsome, violent ex-friends did not want him to change because then they would look bad in comparison to him.

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So one night they murdered him on his way home from work. His sons swore a vendetta to avenge their father’s murder by killing not only his killers but everyone, man, woman or child in their families. Rita returned to prayer because the boys were too big for her to stop. Her prayers were, “Lord, please save their souls. If they are to lose their souls in the commission of this act, please take them.” The Lord answered her prayers and the boys were struck with a fatal illness. As she nursed them she spoke to them of God and before they died they repented. Rita was now alone, she had lost her parents, husband and sons. Ask Rita, the Saint of the Impossible to intercede for you with our merciful Lord in Heaven. She has walked in the shoes of many women who have had husbands who have been alcoholics, adulterers and abandoned them. All the obstacles to her entering the convent were gone, or so it would seem. The Mother Superior to the convent refused to allow Rita to enter the order.

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What possible reason could Mother Superior have? Rita was no longer a virgin, and a widow had never been accepted in the history of the order. When God closes a door, He usually opens another, but we need to look for it. Rita was rejected three times and then the Lord helped her through the closed door. As Rita laid in bed, she heard someone calling her name. She went to the door and found St. Augustine, St. Nicholas and John the Baptizer waiting for her. They motioned to her to follow them and she ran through the village in her nightgown, and up the hill to the convent. The next thing she remembered was waking up in the Chapel of the Augustinian convent which was called a monastery at this time. The last duty of the evening for Mother Superior was to lock the chapel until morning with the only key. The doors to the chapel were so heavy Mother Superior had to bring other nuns with her in order to move them.

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When they opened the doors in the morning to their surprise there was Rita kneeling in prayer and still in her nightgown. It was impossible for her to have gotten into the Chapel, unless . . . ! Mother Superior then said, “You don’t think because the Lord has given you this special gift, that you’re eligible to enter our order, do you?” Rita replied, “No, Mother Superior. I know I’m not worthy enough.” The rule of the Augustinian Order was changed to admit Rita, who would later on be known to the world as Saint Rita. Rita was tested in many ways. As an act of obedience, she was ordered to water a dead and dry stick that had been stuck in the ground. Rita did this obediently, good-naturedly, morning and again at night. I’m sure the other nuns giggled and gossiped about it, but that ended when the lifeless stick blossomed into a grape vine that supplied the convent with sacramental wine.

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The six-hundred year old vine is still producing. One night Rita had a vision of Jesus calling her. The other nuns came to realize that this local girl, a widow, was someone special. During Lent of 1443, Rita received the Stigmata. She began to bleed from the five wounds of Christ, in her hands, side and feet. Because of the odor coming from the wounds the other nuns rejected her. Others who have had the Stigmata gave off a pleasing odor, but not Rita. In 1450 Pope Nicholas V declared the first Holy Year and proclaimed that Rome was the center of the Christian world. All of Christianity wanted to journey to Rome but the nuns excluded Rita because of her odor.

A Sign : 

A Sign Rita prayed that her Stigmata would be healed so that she could go on the pilgrimage, her wounds were healed and their were no traces of them. She went on the pilgrimage. When she returned to the convent after the trip, her wounds reappeared and began bleeding. She then began praying that the Lord would let her know if her husband and sons were in heaven. As a sign she asked that a rose would bloom in her garden but it was winter and the garden was covered with snow. Within days a rose bloomed. A few days before Rita died she had a Vision of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

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Our Lord told her, “You will be with Me in Paradise, in three days.” Three days later on May 22nd, 1457 at the age of 76 Rita left this world. The nuns decided to place St. Rita in a glass coffin under the main altar so that the faithful could venerate her until her body began to decompose. She has remained their for 650 years without any signs of decomposition. The power of the intercession of St. Rita has been confirmed by a multitude of miracles. Most of there have been granted to those on the brink of despair, who felt their petitions were impossible. St. Rita has been given the name, “Saint of the Impossible.” While the favors granted have not been solely to women in distress, she has become known as “The Woman’s Saint.” Rita was a faithful daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow, Nun, Saint, and a Woman of Forgiveness.

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Saint Rita, 650 years after her death