Devotion to Saint Rita: we pray for the strength to overcome difficulties with her holy help

PRAYER TO SANTA RITA TO ASK FOR A THANK YOU

O Saint Rita, saint of the impossible and advocate of desperate causes, under the weight of the test, I appeal to you. Free my poor heart from the anxieties that oppress it and make peace to my heartbroken spirit.

You who have been chosen by God as the advocate of desperate causes, obtain the grace that I ask of you ... [to express the request invoked]

Would I be the only one not to experience the efficacy of your powerful intercession?

If my sins constitute an obstacle to the fulfillment of my dearest vows, obtain for me the great grace of sincere repentance and forgiveness, through a good confession.

In any case, do not allow me to continue to experience such a great affliction. Have mercy on me!

O Lord, see the hope I have placed in you! Listen to Saint Rita who intercedes for us, humanly afflicted without hope. Listen to it once again, manifesting your mercy in us. Amen.

Santa Rita was born in the hamlet of Roccaporena (PG) in 1381 and ceased to live in Cascia (PG) on May 22, 1457. He consecrated himself to God, embracing the ascetic life in the monastery, and was declared Saint by Pope Leo XIII during the Jubilee of 1900.

The first biography of Margaret was composed in 1610. Since there is a small number of written testimonies available, it is necessary in some cases to refer to stories full of fabulous and fantastic details. Little is known about Margherita's first period of life. She was the only daughter of Antonio Lotti and Amata Ferri, very devoted people who tried to make peace between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines who had always been at war. It came to light when the couple was already advanced in years. The same took care of teaching her to recognize the signs of writing and understand their meanings, to draw graphic signs and to make her aware of religious ideals.

It is said that, being the father and mother engaged in the harvest, the newborn Margherita was one day placed in a basket in the shade of the branches of a tree. A farmer passing by the child noticed that a good number of bees were buzzing around the basket and tried to chase them away with his injured hand. Immediately the laceration of his skin healed. Not only had the bees not pierced any part of Margaret's body with their stingers, but they had deposited honey around her mouth.

Margherita was a sweet, respectful and meek girl. She wanted to become a nun from an early age, but her father and mother thought differently. In the Middle Ages it was customary to get women to marry as soon as possible, especially if the parents were of a ripe old age. Around the age of fifteen, the girl was then given in marriage to Paolo Mancini, of the aristocratic Mancini family and head of the Collegiacone militias, a person with a proud character who imposed his authority by force. He had two children (Giangiacomo Antonio and Paolo Maria). Margherita took care of the offspring and the groom with concern, making sure that her husband knew the Christian religion.

Married life lasted for about eighteen years until the death of her husband, killed one night while returning home, probably by acquaintances due to injuries or injuries suffered. The saint, deeply religious, gave up revenge, but was deeply worried when she realized that her children wanted to take revenge by repaying the offense suffered. He turned to God begging for his help, deeming the death of his children preferable rather than making themselves guilty of violent actions that would damage their immortal souls, created directly by God. In a short time Giangiacomo and Paolo fell ill and ceased to live.

Margherita, no longer having a family, three times asked in vain to be admitted to the abbey of Santa Maria Maddalena in Cascia, a will already present in her since her youth. A legend tells that Margherita then, during one night, was brought by her three defending Saints (S. Agostino, S. Giovanni Battista, S. Nicola da Tolentino) from the portion of rock that emerges from the surface present in Roccaporena, where she frequently addressed to God with the mind and with words in order to implore his help, right inside the abbey, moving in the air. The nun placed at the head of the monastery could not therefore refrain from fulfilling the request of the Saint, who ended up living in that place until her death, praying for many hours every day.

Margaret's daily task, to ascertain her disposition to religious life, felt as a call from God, was to wet a piece of dry wood in the internal courtyard of the abbey, making sure that the water fell like rain. Thanks to his care, the piece of dry wood produced various fruits. Even in the present time, in the inner courtyard, one can contemplate the magnificent vine that produces fruit in large quantities and the beautiful garden corner planted with roses.

Some out-of-the-ordinary events in which Santa Rita was the protagonist are told: on Good Friday, when the sun had already set and it was starting to get dark, Margherita after listening to Fra 'Giacomo della Marca's homily focused on recounting the set of sufferings suffered by Christ in the period from the night spent in the garden of Gethsemane to the crucifixion, he had as a gift a thorn from the crown of Christ placed on his forehead. Because of what happened, the nun at the head of the monastery denied Margherita the consent to go to Rome with the other nuns for devotion, penance and prayer. But legend has it that the day before the departure the plug placed on the forehead of the Saint disappeared and therefore she was able to begin the journey. The thorn was present in the last 15 years of Margherita's existence.

Other miraculous events were, during the initiation rite consisting of sprinkling with water, the appearance of light-colored bees on his baby bed, and instead of dark-colored bees where the Saint had been lying dying. Finally a rose of the color of the bright blood bloomed in winter as two figs ripened on the plant in its small plot of land. Being on the point of passing to a better life, the Saint asked her cousin to take them from her Roccaporena land. The cousin believed that she was raving, but saw, despite the fact that there was a lot of snow, a beautiful rose with the color of bright blood and two figs that had reached their full development.

Rita da Cascia was the object of religious devotion almost immediately after her death (May 22, 1457) and was nicknamed the "saint of the impossible" because of the numerous miracles performed by God in favor of the destitute or individuals who were in desperate situations for intercession of the Saint. She was blessed, 180 years after her death, in 1627 under the pontificate of Urban VII. In 1900 Pope Leo XIII declared her Saint.

The remains of the Saint are kept in the church of Santa Rita in Cascia (PG).