Saint Rita of Cascia
Religious
- Feast Day
- May 22
- Life
- 1381–1457
- Canonized
- 1900
- Order
- Order of Saint Augustine (Augustinian nuns)
- Born
- Roccaporena, near Cascia, Umbria
Saint Rita was born Margherita Lotti at Roccaporena, near Cascia in Umbria, in 1381. Married while still young to Paolo Mancini, she bore him two sons. After eighteen years of a difficult marriage, her husband was murdered, the result of a feud between rival families of the area. Her two sons died of illness shortly after, and Rita worked to forgive her husband's killers and to keep her sons from seeking revenge.
Widowed and childless, she sought entry into the Augustinian monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene at Cascia. After initial refusals, she was finally received about 1407. She lived the remaining forty years of her life in the monastery in austere prayer, penance, and works of charity. Beginning in 1442 she was marked with a wound on her forehead, traditionally received before a crucifix, that has been venerated as a partial stigmata.
Rita died at Cascia on May 22, 1457. Pope Urban VIII beatified her in 1628; Pope Leo XIII canonized her on May 24, 1900. She is widely venerated as the saint of impossible causes. The Optional Memorial of May 22 was inscribed in the General Roman Calendar by the post-Vatican II reform.
Rita's biography touches every state of Catholic life: virgin, wife, mother, widow, and consecrated religious. Her witness to forgiveness in the face of murder, and her perseverance in monastic vocation despite repeated rejection, form the substance of her cult as advocate of those facing what seems impossible.
Patronages
impossible causes · abused women · widows · marital difficulties
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Rita of Cascia
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Rita of Cascia's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St. Pankratius und Margarita — Heckenbach
- St. Rita Parish — West Allis, WI
- St. Rita's Church — Racine, WI
- St. Rita Catholic Church — Vinita Park, MO
- St. Rita's Catholic Church — Sierra Madre, CA
- San Francisco de Asis (World Heritage Site) — Ranchos De Taos, NM
- Mission San Jose y San Miguel (World Heritage Site) — San Antonio, TX
- St. Rita — Fort Worth, TX
- St. Clare of Montefalco Chapel (St. Rita of Cascia Parish) — Chicago, IL
- St. Rita — Gouldsboro, PA
- Santa Rita Abbey — Sonoita, AZ
- St. Rita — Deferiet, NY
- St. Rita of Cascia — Tacoma, WA
- St. Rita (Brooklyn) — Brooklyn, NY
- Church of St. Rita — Baltimore, MD
- Church of St. Rita — Milwaukee, WI
- Church of St. Rita — Brooklyn, NY
- Church of St. Rita — Catahoula, LA
- Church of Santa Margarita de Cortana — Santa Margarita, CA
- St. Rita — Landshut, DELAWARE
Sources