He would verbally and physically abuse his wife, had infidelities, and was involved with a family feud between the Chiqui and Mancini families.Įventually, through Rita’s influence of humility, kindness, and patience, Paolo changed his ways and became a better person. Paolo turned out to be a cruel man with a violent temper and many enemies. In obedience to her parents, Rita married him and during their 18 years of marriage, she bore and raised him two sons. However, thinking of her safety and security, her parents promised her in marriage to a man named Paolo Mancini. They considered Rita’s birth as a gift from God as they were already advanced in years by the time she was born.įrom an early age, Rita longed to become a nun and she would frequently visit the convent of the Augustinian nuns in Cascia. She was the only child of Antonio and Amata Lotti, who were known as peacemakers in their community. Saint Rita of Cascia was born in a village called Roccaporena, near Cascia, Italy in 1381. The life of Saint Rita of Cascia is a perfect example of what can happen when you trust in God even when things seem impossible. She is the patron saint of impossible causes, sterility, abuse victims, loneliness, marriage difficulties, parenthood, widows, the sick, bodily ills and wounds.SummarySaint Rita of Cascia, born Margherita Lotti, was an Augustinian nun known as a peacemaker and patron saint of impossible cases, abused women, and parents. John Paul II noted her remarkable qualities as a Christian woman: "Rita interpreted well the 'feminine genius' by living it intensely in both physical and spiritual motherhood." On the 100th anniversary of her canonization in 2000, Pope St. Rita was canonized in 1900 by Pope Leo XIII. She died of tuberculosis at the age of 70 on May 22, 1456. Rita was bedridden for the last four years of her life, consuming almost nothing except for the Eucharist. There she lived the last 40 years of her life in prayer, mortification and service to the people of Cascia.įor the final 15 years of her life, she received a stigmata-like thorn wound in answer to her prayers to be more profoundly conformed to the Passion of Jesus. Augustine, Mary Magdalene and John the Baptist and was finally allowed to enter the convent. The saint heard the call to become a nun in the Augustinian convent at Cascia, but she was refused entry at first. She was granted this grace, and her sons, who died young, died reconciled to God. He was murdered 18 years later and she forgave his murderers, praying that her twin sons, who had sworn to avenge their father's death, would also forgive. Rita was married at the age of 12 to a violent and ill-tempered husband. She is invoked by people in all situations and stations of life, since she had embraced suffering with charity and wrongs with forgiveness in the many trials she experienced in her life: as a wife, widow, a mother surviving the death of her children, and a nun.īorn in 1386 in Roccaparena, Umbria, St. Rita has become immensely popular throughout the centuries. Known in Spain as "La Santa de los impossibiles" ("the saint of the impossible"), St. John Paul II called "a disciple of the Crucified One" and an "expert in suffering." On May 22, the Church celebrates the feast day of St.
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