St. Rita of Cascia

Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Rita of Cascia. St. Rita lived a very powerful, hard but beautiful life because Jesus’ mercy and love were very evident during her life. St. Rita had many different roles during her life she was a wife, a mother, a widow, and then later she became a member of a religious community. St. Rita’s trust in God and her holiness was very evident and important during each phase of her life.

St. Rita was born during the year 1381 in Roccaporena which was located in central Italy. When St. Rita was young she desired to become a nun, however, St. Rita was pressured ever since a young age by her parents into marrying a harsh and cruel man.

During St. Rita’s 18 year long marriage, she was able to have and raise two sons who she loved very much. However, after St. Rita’s husband was killed in a dangerous brawl both her sons had died right after.

The sad thing is that St. Rita had made her husband a better men during their marriage and she strengthened her entire families devotion to Christ. However, men who did not like her husband for past issues killed him.

After all of this had occurred St. Rita attempted to join the Augustinian nuns in Cascia. However, St. Rita was not successful during her first attempt due to the fact that she was a widow. Eventually after a lot of prayer and persistence St. Rita was able to join.

Over the course of many years, St. Rita was able to grow in many ways including her austerity, prayerfulness, and charity. St. Rita was incredible due to the fact that she was able to change many peoples lives and help many people in need.

When St. Rita had developed the wounds on her forehead, many people associated them with the wounds that came from Christ’s crown of thorns. St. Rita was someone that spent a lot of her time meditating on Christ’s passion. St. Rita would also take care for all the sick nuns and she would show each nun a lot of love and compassion. St. Rita also counseled many lay people who would go to her monastery.

St. Rita passed away on May 22, 1457. St. Rita was later beatified during the year 1626. St. Rita was later canonized during the year 1900. St. Rita is known as a saint who can help people during impossible cases. Many people decide to visit her tomb each year.

St. Rita is the patron saint of difficult marriages, impossible causes, infertility and parenthood. St. Rita’s feast day is celebrated on May 22.

Prayer to St. Rita

St. Rita you have faced many different challenging moments and situations during your life however, you continued to trust in Christ and you were able to find your way to Christ during every crisis you faced, St. Rita pray for us, so easily we allow ourselves to separate ourselves from Christ and slip into temptation. St. Rita pray for us, pray that we may be able to stay close to Christ during moments of high temptation or trials so that we may be able to deepen our intimacy and love with him.

We ask this through Christ Our Lord and Mary Our Mother in Heaven

Amen

St. Rita pray for us

St. Joseph pray for us

May we continue to strengthen our journey to sainthood and keep others in our prayers.

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Works Cited

Information (read from, not taken):

Franciscan Media. "St. Rita of Cascia. ”https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-rita-of-cascia. Accessed 22, May 2021.

Images:

St. Rita. May 22, 2021. St. Rita of Cascia - Google Search.