Rita of Cascia (1381-1457)

Feast Day: May 22
Canonized: May 24,1900

Saint Rita was born Margherita Lotti in Roccaporena, Italy. Despite her attraction to religious life, her parents arranged for her to marry Paolo Mancini, a nobleman, when she was 12 years old. They were married for 18 years and had two sons.

Paulo was murdered during a family feud. Rita publicly forgave her husband’s murderers, but an uncle wanted Rita’s sons to avenge their father’s death. Unable to dissuade her sons, Rita prayed, asking that they not lose their souls to mortal sin. A year later, both boys died from dysentery.

After becoming a childless widow, Rita sought to enter a monastery in Cascia, but she was turned away at first. She persisted, and the convent said she could enter if she could mend the family feud. The feud ended shortly after the bubonic plague swept through Italy, and Rita was allowed to enter the monastery at age 39.

Rita spent the rest of her life in the monastery. One day as she prayed, a wound appeared on her forehead that seemed to come from one of Christ’s thorns. It caused her to suffer until she died. Her incorrupt body is on display for veneration in Cascia. Pope Leo XIII declared her the patroness of impossible causes.

BRIAN FRAGA is a Legatus magazine staff writer.