St. Rita of Cascia

St. Rita of Cascia was born around 1381 at Roccaporena, near Cascia in Umbria, Italy, and died on 22 May 1457 at Cascia. Though she longed from childhood to enter religious life, she was given in marriage, and endured for many years a difficult union with a harsh, ill-tempered husband, whom her patience and prayer eventually softened. When he was murdered in a local feud, she forgave his killers and, praying that her two sons might not pursue vengeance, accepted even their early deaths rather than see them stained by blood.

Widowed and alone, she at last fulfilled her early desire and entered the Augustinian convent at Cascia, where she lived a life of deep prayer, penance, and charity. In her devotion to the suffering Christ she received a wound on her forehead, as from a thorn of His crown, which she bore for years. Canonized in 1900, she is one of the most beloved of saints, invoked as the patroness of impossible and desperate causes, and of wives, mothers, and the abused.