Saint Rita of Cascia

Saint Rita of Cascia was born in 1381 in Roccaporena, a small hamlet near Cascia in Umbria, Italy. Baptized Margherita Lotti and lovingly called Rita, she grew up in a home marked by charity and a desire for peace. Though she longed for religious life, she was married young to Paolo Mancini, a man known for violence and infidelity. With patient faith, Rita endured years of suffering and became a model wife and mother, praying for her husband’s conversion. After he was murdered in a feud, she publicly forgave his killers. Fearing her two sons would seek revenge, she entrusted them to God; both died soon after, sparing them from the cycle of violence. Widowed and alone, Rita sought the convent and was accepted only after helping reconcile the feuding families. As an Augustinian nun, she lived a life of prayer, penance, and service to the poor and sick, and is often associated with a wound on her forehead resembling a thorn’s mark. Venerated as the Patroness of Impossible Causes and a patron of widows, those suffering abuse, illness, and wounds, she died on May 22, 1457. Her feast day is May 22.