Facts about st Rita of CASCIA
Rita of Cascia, OSA, was an Italian widow and Augustinian nun. After Rita's husband died, she joined a small community of nuns, who later became Augustinians, where she was known both for practicing mortification of the flesh and for the efficacy of her prayers.
Margherita Lotti was born in 1381 in the city of Roccaporena, a small hamlet near Cascia, Umbria where various sites c
onnected with her are the focus of pilgrimages. Her name, Margherita, means "pearl". She was affectionately called Rita, the short form of her baptismal name. Her parents, Antonio and Amata Ferri Lotti, were known to be noble, charitable people, who gained the epithet Conciliatori di Cristo (English: Peacemakers of Christ). According to pious accounts, Rita was originally pursued by a notary named Gubbio but she resisted his offer. She was married at age twelve to a nobleman named Paolo di Ferdinando di Mancino. Her marriage was arranged by her parents, a common practice at the time, despite her repeated requests to be allowed to enter a convent of religious sisters. Her husband, Paolo Mancini, was known to be a rich, quick-tempered, immoral man, who had many enemies in the region of Cascia. The marriage lasted for eighteen years, during which she was remembered for her Christian values as a model wife and mother who made efforts to convert her husband( Paolo Mancini ) from his abusive behavior.
WHY DO St RITA OF CASCIA HAS WOUNDS ON HER FOREHEAD
Her offer was accepted, her prayer was answered, and Rita was united with Jesus in a profound experience of spiritual intimacy, a thorn from his crown penetrating her forehead. The wound it caused remained open and visible until the day of her death.
Rita endured his insults, physical abuse and infidelities for many years. According to popular tales, through humility, kindness and patience, Rita was able to convert her husband into a better person, more specifically renouncing a family feud known at the time as La Vendetta. Rita eventually bore two sons, Giangiacomo (Giovanni) Antonio and Paulo Maria, and brought them up in the Christian faith. As time went by and the family feud between the Chiqui and Mancini families became more intense, Paolo Mancini became congenial, but his allies betrayed him and he was stabbed to death by Guido Chiqui, a member of the feuding family.
St RITA'S DEAD BODY
Dr. Paul Kengor is a husband, father, a college professor and a best-selling author. He teaches political science at Grove City College where he is Executive Director of the Institute for Faith and Freedom. He is author of The Devil and Karl Marx (TAN Books, 2020).
She has become one of my favorite saints, and yet I usually don’t think of her until her feast day, which every year is May 22. In fact, you would be reading this article earlier, ahead of her feast day, if I had thought ahead. Her feast day also happens to be the day when my wife and I were married (and neither of us Catholic), May 22, 1993. Perhaps in my frantic fear of missing my wife’s anniversary, I’m too myopically focused elsewhere to think of Saint Rita of Cascia ahead of time.
St RITA OF CASCIA was my favorite st .