Công Giáo posted an update in the group
2 weeks ago
Dio MadisonToday is a memorial that has connections with Pope Leo XIV’s order, the Augustinians: St. Rita of Cascia! St. Rita was born in Italy in 1381 and desired to enter the convent, but consented to a marriage arranged by her parents instead. Her husband, Paolo, was harsh and quick-tempered, but Rita was able to convert him through her patience and kindness. Unfortunately, Paolo’s family and another family were caught up in a feud that turned violent, and Paolo was killed by a member of the warring family. Rita pardoned her husband’s killer, but her two sons began to seek revenge. Rita begged God to preserve them from sin and from carrying out their plans, and they died a year later from illness before they were able to avenge their father’s death. After their deaths, Rita sought to enter an Augustinian convent in Cascia, but the scandal of her husband’s murder caused the nuns to turn her away initially. They eventually agreed to let her enter on one condition: that she reconcile her family with her husband’s murderers. She successfully met this condition and was granted entry into the convent. She died at the age of 76, after 40 years of religious life. Pope Leo XIII canonized her in 1900. Along with St. Jude, she is regarded as the patron saint of impossible and helpless causes.
One day during her religious life, as she was meditating on a crucifix, St. Rita received a wound in her forehead, as if a thorn from Jesus’ crown of thorns had pierced her. She bore this wound from the time she was 60 until her death at age 76. For this reason, art often depicts St. Rita with a wound in her forehead.
St. Rita of Cascia, pray for us!
