Rita is the diminutive of Margherita, first name that was born in 1381 in Cascia in Umbria (Italy) that will become holy Rita. Forced to marry by her parents, Rita will marry a brutal man. Faced with the adversity of her situation, Rita will pray for her husband and leave it to God. His prayer will be heard. However, she will lose her husband during an assassination and her two sons will be swept away by the plague. She will enter the convent of the daughters of St. Augustine in her native village. She will stay there for 40 years. On Holy Thursday 1421, in full meditation, she receives a stigma on her forehead, a trace of the holy crown. Until her death on May 22, 1457, she will wear this sign of the Passion. Rita was beatified in 1628 and canonized in 1900. Her body, well preserved, rests at the Basilica of St. Rita, erected in Cascia. St. Rita offers an example of faith and unswerving hope despite the trials of life. "Rita de Cascia was the first woman to be canonized during the great Jubilee of the early twentieth century, May 24, 1900. In decreeing his Holiness, my predecessor Leo XIII observed that it pleased both Christ he wanted to mark it seal of his charity and his passion. Such a privilege was granted to him because of his singular humility, his inner detachment from the earthly passions and the admirable spirit of penance that accompanied every moment of his life. "St. John Paul II.
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