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Also known as
Margarita of Cascia; Rita La Abogada de Imposibles
Memorial: 22 May
Profile
Daughter of Antonio and Amata Lotti; known as Peacemakers of Jesus, they
had Rita late in life. From her early youth, Rita visited the Augustinian
nuns at Cascia, and showed interest in a religious life. However, when she
was twelve, her parents betrothed her to Paolo Mancini, an ill-tempered,
abusive individual who worked as town watchman, and was dragged into the
political disputes of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Disappointed but
obedient, Rita married him when she was 18, and was the mother of twin
sons.
She put up with Paolo's abuses for eighteen years before he was ambushed
and stabbed to death. Her sons swore vengeance on their father's killers,
but through Rita's prayers and interventions, they forgave the offenders.
Upon the deaths of her sons, Rita again felt the call to religious life.
However, some of the sisters at the Augustinian monastery were relatives
of her husband's assassins, and she was denied entry for fear of causing
dissension. Asking for the intervention of Saint John the Baptist, Saint
Augustine of Hippo, and Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, she managed to bring
the warring factions together, not completely, but sufficiently that there
was peace, and she was admitted to the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene
at age 36.
Rita lived 40 years in the convent, spending her time in prayer and
charity, and working for peace in the region. She was devoted to the
Passion, and in response to a prayer to suffer as Christ, she received a
chronic head wound that appeared to have been caused by a crown of thorns,
and which bled for 15 years.
Confined to her bed the last four years of her life, eating little more
than the Eucharist, teaching and directing the younger sisters. Near the
end she had a visitor from her home town who asked if she'd like anything;
Rita's only request was a rose from her family's estate. The visitor went
to the home, but it being January, knew there was no hope of finding a
flower; there, sprouted on an otherwise bare bush, was a single rose
blossom.
Among the other areas, Rita is well-known as a patron of desperate,
seemingly impossible causes and situations. This is because she has been
involved in so many stages of life - wife, mother, widow, and nun, she
buried her family, helped bring peace to her city, saw her dreams denied
and fulfilled - and never lost her faith in God, or her desire to be with
Him.
Born
1386 at Roccaparena, Umbria, Italy
Died
22 May 1457 at the Augustinian convent at Cascia of tuberculosis
Canonized
24 May 1900
Patronage
abuse victims, against loneliness, against sterility, bodily ills,
desperate causes, difficult marriages, forgotten causes, impossible
causes, infertility, lost causes, parenthood, sick people, sickness,
sterility, victims of physical spouse abuse, widows, wounds
Representation
nun holding a crown of thorns; nun holding roses; nun holding roses and
figs; nun with a wound on her forehead
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