Saint Rita of Cascia, Saint of the Impossible, led a life of many trials. Yet, during that life she also achieved many significant triumphs. She is also known as the ‘Peacemaker of Jesus’ for her many good deeds. She was the only child born to Antonio and Amata Lotti in a tiny hamlet near Cascia, Italy. St. Rita Miracles began the day she was baptized when bees swarmed around her cradle. They peacefully flew in and out of her mouth and all around her without harming her or anyone in her family.

By the age of twelve she wished to enter a convent but her parents felt she would be better protected if she married. They arranged a marriage for her to Paelo Mancini, a town watchman. The marriage was blessed with twin sons. Unfortunately, Paelo was an immoral, quick tempered man and Rita suffered his abuse for eighteen years before he was ambushed and stabbed to death. Their teenage sons wished to seek revenge against their father’s death. Through her prayers and interventions her sons did not act upon their revenge. Both sons died of illness within a year.

Left alone, St. Rita de Cascia sought the religious life but the Augustinian nuns in the monastery of Saint Mary Magadalen refused to let her enter the convent. Because some of their members belonged to the rival family responsible for Paelo’s murder, they feared for the peace of the convent.

Most stories of St. Rita agree she was transported to the convent by night through the intervention of her patron saints, St. John the Baptist, St. Augustine of Hippo and St Nicholas of Tolentino. When the nuns found her inside the convent walls the next morning they accepted her.

Another story of Saint Rita is that she confronted those responsible for her husband’s death and implored them to turn to lives of peace. It is said, in the end, the two rivaling families even signed a document declaring their war against each other was over.

Rita of Cascia the widowed mother who suffered great physical abuse at the hands of her husband and mental anguish at the revengeful seekings of her sons, became Sister Rita at the age of thirty-six.

St. Rita lived forty years as a practicing nun of poverty and doing works of mercy, charity and peace. When she entered the convent she was given one habit. She wore that habit one habit the remainder of her life and was buried in it.

One day, as Saint Rita was kneeling in prayer before a replica of the Crucified Christ. She implored, “Oh my Jesus, let me share in Thy suffering at least by one of Thy thorns.” A single thorn from the crown surrounding Jesus’ head speared directly into Sister Rita’s forehead. This wound bled until the end of her life.

The final four years of her life Saint Rita de Cascia was confined to bed as an invalid totally dependant upon the charity of her sisters. She ate little more than the Eucharist and she taught the younger sisters. In her final days, she had one request, that a cousin would bring to her a single rose from her family’s estate. It was the middle of January and the cousin thought this to be impossible. But when the cousin went to Rita’s former home she found a single rose in blossom on an otherwise bare bush in the family garden.

Saint Rita met her Divine Savior on May 22, 1457. She was Beatified by Pope Urban VIII in 1627 and Canonized by Pope Leo IV on May 22, 1900.

Because of her many trials and sacrifices throughout her life Rita the Saint is known as Rita Patron Saint of Impossible Causes and desperate situations. She’s often entreated by those suffering the afflictions of abuse, sickness, desperate causes, difficult marriages, widows and wounded people, also those suffering from sterility and infertility.

There are many stories about her acts of charity and obedience. One Saint Rita Story is that the Convent Mother, wishing to test the obedience of Rita, instructed her to water a dead and withered plant from the convent garden every day for a year. Sister Rita obediently did as she was instructed, every day. At the end of a year, to the great astonishment of her superiors, that dead plant brought forth leaves and flowers and became the most beautiful of all the grape vines in the garden. Today, 500 hundred years later, that same vine remains bountiful and beautiful. Its leaves are dried and powdered and sent all over the world to people who are suffering. Many cures have been reported by the grape leaves. Its fruit is sent to the Pope and to other Dignitaries.

The year 1450 was declared a jubilee year by Pope Nicholas V. When St. Rita asked to accompany the other nuns to Rome so she might gain the indulgences of the jubilee, her superiors told her they would permit her to go when the wound on her head healed. It is said, Saint Rita asked Jesus to heal the wound on her head so she might go to Rome with her sisters. God heard her prayer. Her forehead was healed and she was granted permission to accompany her sisters to Rome. When she returned, the moment she set foot in the chapel at Cascia the wound reappeared and remained until her death.

Photo credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
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60 COMMENTS

  2. I am having much difficulty with life at the moment and need all the intercessions I can get. A good friend of mine from our church sent me St. Rita’s story. I will pray to her for help with my situation. I will be back to let y’all know how it goes.

    • please St.Ritas’s pray for my grown daughter they don’t get along and they have children’s of their on. please pray for !y brother he is a good brother to me but he is also a sick brother but he work and take care himself. my husband died on my birthday 4/23 last year it been a year and two months. please pray for me a companion a good person that I can talked to I don’t don’t to be along..thank you.

  4. I’ll start my novena prayer to St. Rita of Cascia. Prayer is my strength eversince I encountered difficulties related to my family, friends, works & especially my lovelife. Oh, help me pray to St. Rita that my relationship with Andy will stay for the rest of my life. Godbless…

  5. St. Rita is the saint of the impossible. I made into the university because of her powerful intercession. May she always pray for us.

  9. St Rita please pray for my family and the cases we are fighting. Please intercede on the behalf of my husband and ask for the case in the state to be settled in our favor. Please protect us especially our son. AMEN.

  11. I am touched, i’ve heard this stories over and over again and i believe in Her most gracious intercession. I am presently going tru self destruct in relation to my masturbating issues plus family problem. O good St. Rita, come to our aid.

  12. I wish the lord to grant me his grace and blessings in all aspects of my life,especially in my plan study in the US,may the lord grant me a successful visa application,reconciliation in my love life with the girl i love,may the lord grant healing to my sister patience,grandmother,mother and may Jesus bless my sister Irene with kids.May the lord Jesus bless all my efforts in life and use me to show his greatness.May our mother intercede for me,may St Rita of Cascia pray for me.

  14. Saint Rita, we meet again! Thank you for helping my mother with her cancer. I am so happy that today is your day! Mom has Chemo today and I ask that you help her through it. Please help her recover if it is God’s will. Thank you for helping us in our time of need. I promise to learn more about you and to tell people about you.

  15. Dear st Rita, its ur feast day today, we acknwoledge u to be the saint of impossible cases; therefore we implore your intercession on our world; there are bombings, natural disasters etc everywhere. Peace is gradually disappearing from the larger community and even from the smallest unit(family). Pray to the crucified one from whose crown a thorn struck your head to come to our rescue and keep his sheep from becoming lost. Amen!

  17. St. Rita, please pray for the Oklahoma families suffering because o the loss of their children and other loved one. Their pain must be impossible to bear. Please pray for them to find comfort.

  18. Dear St Britain please intercede for me with all your heart to our Lord Jesus so that He might clearly reveal my vocation. And on this very special feastday I ask a grearlt cavorted of you, Saint of the Impossible, please help that my love, Alex may have a powerful conversion of heart and mind and soul. I pray that we be united as soon as possible in the Sacrament of Marriage and live a holy life. I was baptised in a chapel dedicated to You, I beg you to miraculously return Alex to me. I love you and will never cease spreading g devotion to you.

  20. Dear St. Rita, Pray for me and my family, give back my good sights, sound mind and remember things, peace at home, work and other member of the family, stable jobs and future for my 2 sons and future loving and happy family of their own, protect us from harm, evil, danger and enemies, bless and protect us, pray and intercede for us, Amen.

  22. St Rita,help me as I prepare for my TOEFL examination,favour me with an admission and a visa to study in germany! Help me in my relationship with obi,also help my mum,dad and brothers. And help me heal from the abuse that I encountered. We pray oh lord

  23. Dear St. Rita: Please help, through your intercession to our Lord, that my wife and I will improve our relationship in order to be one in our Lord. Thank you, St. Rita.

  24. St. Rita of Cascia, please intercede for the healing of my son, Marc Lhean who has perforated eardrum(right ear). I ask you this in Jesus name. Amen.

  26. St. Rita I implore you to watch over me and my family and give me safety and security in my employment as jobs could be reduced. I pray and ask this in your name and beg for peace and calm in my life. I give thanks to you for your assistance!

  28. St Rita please pray for my granddaughters husband Gelin Regis to come to the UK and live there married live together not apart for the love they have for each other and beautiful children pray for them Thank you

  29. St. Rita, I pray for your intercession so that I am able to sell my house quickly with enough profit to pay any commissions or closing costs and find available, affordable housing in my current town so that I can put an end to my financial distress/burden. I’d also like to pray for blessings upon my friends and family currently assisting me during this tough time, for an end to my niece’s addiction and for strength for my sister as she seeks to end her troubled marriage.

  30. St. Rita, please pray for me and my children, that we are granted health of body, mind and soul. That I find employment to support my children and expenses. That whomever The Lord brings into my life, loves, cares and respects me and my children. And that if it is in His will for me to move, all will come to be in the most profitable way possible for us. Amen! Thank you!

  31. Please St Rita, Please ask God for help in our home situation. We have taken in the brother of my husband for the second time. Through prayers he found a job, but now seems to be going back to his old ways of bullying and being greedy, and dominating my home. He is making my home into a place that is tense and non peaceful.He always wants to fight and cause tension. Please pray that he helps his brother and acts nicely. Please bring Jesus into his life and teach him peace. Please make my home a place of peace and tranquility again in all matters. Thank you dear St Rita.

  33. Please St. Rita through your intercession plead with God to help our family to resolve our legal cases for which we need financial help in order to restore our legality in the country we live in. We are fighting this battle for the past four and a half years. It all started when my husband loss his job during the recession and ever since has not been able to find employment, thus which resulted him getting into severe debt for non payment of loans and credit card settlements which now the banks have filed cases against him. Also we were living in a rented apartment and were to be evacuated due to bounced cheques of my husband. I being the only one earning was asked to write a guarantee cheque and given one month to settle it. As we could not find the funds the bank has also deposited my cheque and now there is a legal case against me too. I know that through your personal prayers and intercession God will assist us in our need as you are the Saint of the Impossible. St. Rita I love you, Pray for us.

  34. St. Rita of Cascia, please intercede for me to our Lord Jesus Christ, that I may reconcile with my child’d father, that we learn to be patient, forgiving and understand each other, that our love grows stronger, that we live for our Lord. This I pray trusting and believing in our Lord Jesus Christ, all the angels and saints, pray for us, Mary Help of Christians, pray for us.

  35. Saint Rita is my favorite Saint she has helped me time and again . I planted a rose bush in her honor and I have to say it is the most beautiful one in my town and one of the very few that survived this last harsh winter. I thank you and love you Saint Rita.

  38. Place help me in my work and enable me to do my work efficiently without mistakes and leave on time . I feel that I am being harassed at work.Take care of all my family members.

  39. Please pray for good health for me and all of my family. Please help my oldest son to find a job he loves and be able to provide well for his family. Please help my younger son to bring up his children loving Jesus. Amen and Thank you.

  40. A very dear friend posted St. Rita of Cascia’s story on Facebook and was very moved by her trials and trubulations, especially with her sons. I pray to you St, Rita for my son. I am having a difficult time with him getting motivated and staying interested in school. I struggle everyday with him when it comes to having him do homework and it’s a constant battle. Recently he got in trouble in school which is now in the juvenile courts. I ask for your intercession to our Lord St. Rita.

  41. St. Rita, our son Jason is in the throes of horrible alcoholism and we don’t know where else to turn. Help him to see a lighted path to sobriety and give us the strength to face his demons even as he fights them.

  43. I have never commented on this website before but several years ago I prayed to St Rita to end a very painful family dispute and it seemed impossible. I prayed before her statue in a small church in Trastevere in Rome. The dispute was resolved with peace and happiness as a result! Last month I returned to Rome and tried to find the little church in order to thank St Rita but was unable to do this so I am posting this comment instead in gratitude to her for her intercession.

  45. I’m so proud to have St.Rita as my patron saint .. Her powerful intercession has helped me since high school/ secondary school. Truly the saint of impossible and Difficult cases.

  46. St Rose of Cascia saint of the impossible so many are asking your intercession, so many are in difficulty of oort or another, i P0RAY YOUR INTERCESSION ON OUR BEHALF THAT RELIEF will be experienced in all situations – My family and I are going through many changes, our case for settling our son’s estate hhhas been held up0 for the last three years, causing us especially our first dson much financcial distress and now there is another change his partner is selling their home to move to London – please help to do God’s will will about their relationshaip and assist them to get a good home – Our second son’s is getting a divorce , I am not sure about their situation again may God’s will be done, our grandson is to have surgery for a dislocated should, tha t I understand is a difficult surgery please help . Our last son is also getting a divorce, his wife’s wish and she is preventing him from speaking to their only son PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM and he is thinking about moving to another country – I t seems St Rose everything is fallin apart – so many problems BUT GOD HAS BEEN MERCIFUL i Continue to see light as we live in HOPE – THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTERCESSION ON OUR BEHALF AND i PRAY FOR ALL WHO ARE SEEKING YOUR INTERCESSION

  51. Saint Rita of Cascia. Pray for as I am going through one of the most trying times on my life. Help me to appreciate and understand that all things good or bad are there to bring us closer to our Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe you ask Him to deliver me from them, if it will please Hom.
    Amen

  54. SAINT. RITA,,,,,,PRAY….for…..the….UNBORN!!!!!!!!
    PRAY…….for. this…….DIABOLICAL……….CULT……..to…….STOP……the…….KILLING……of……these……young…….ABUSED………
    GIRLS……..and……..women…….WHO……are……TORTURED…….and…….MURDERED !!!!
    SIMPLY….FOR…..THOSE….WHO……..WANT………a……..LIFE…..of……..GOOD…..LOOKS…!!!!!!!!!AND……
    EVERLASTING…………HEALTH !!!!!!!!
    SAINT….RITA……BE….HERE….FOR………US……ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  57. Saint Rita, Patron of impossible and desperate situations, I plead with you to intercede in my desperate needs as I am full of worry amen.

  58. Saint Rita patron of the impossible, I plead for your intervention for my daughter she has infertility problems

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