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St. Rita of Cascia

Feast 05-22 · Canonized 1900

Patron of

About

Rita was born in 1381 in Roccaporena, near Cascia in central Italy. Though she longed for religious life, her parents arranged her marriage to a violent and unfaithful man. For eighteen years she endured the marriage with patience and prayer, and her gentleness eventually converted her husband, with whom she had two sons.

After her husband was murdered in a feud, Rita forgave his killers and persuaded her sons not to seek revenge; both died soon after. Widowed and alone, she sought to enter the Augustinian convent at Cascia and, after several refusals, was finally admitted around 1413. She lived there in prayer and penance for forty years, and in 1442 received a wound on her forehead, said to be from a thorn of Christ's crown.

Rita died on May 22, 1457, and was canonized in 1900. She is known as the saint of impossible causes and is the patroness of difficult marriages, abused women, and hopeless situations.

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Suggested prayer

O God, who gave Rita the patience to convert a violent husband and the grace to bear the thorn of Your Son's crown, grant through her intercession that those in impossible causes and difficult marriages may find peace. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sources

Other saints to pray to

For impossible causes

For difficult marriages