St. Rita of Cascia

May 22 is the feast of St. Rita of Cascia (1381-1457), the Augustinian nun and patron of impossible cases. Born Margherita Lotti at Roccaporena, near Cascia in Umbria, she was married against her will at twelve to Paolo Mancini, a violent man, and bore two sons. After eighteen years of marriage, Paolo was murdered in a feud; Rita forgave the killers and prayed that her sons would not take vengeance — both sons died young, before they could do so.

Rita entered the Augustinian convent at Cascia in 1413, where she lived as a nun for forty-four years. In 1441, after a vision of the crown of thorns, she received a partial stigmata — a wound on her forehead that bled until her death. She is one of the great figures of the Augustinian spiritual tradition, and her cult is one of the most popular in Italy. She was beatified in 1626 and canonized in 1900.

The body of Rita lies in the Basilica of Santa Rita at Cascia, and the convent where she lived is preserved with her cell. From Roccaporena, where she was born, to Cascia, where she was a nun, the May 22 feast is the feast of the saint of impossible cases — the wife, the widow, the nun, who trusted all to God.