Perhaps it is simply a result of my not having been a Catholic in this lifetime (rather than an indication of any ignorance), but I confess that Saint Rita of Cascia had totally escaped my awareness until this past week. I eagerly read these words about her, “She is known as the Saint of the Impossible. Those who bear heavy burdens, especially women, worship her as the patron saint of desperate causes.”
Now, a patron saint of desperate causes seems like something we would want others to know about. Especially at this time in our world. I am sharing the information with you all now.
She had repeatedly begged her parents to allow her to become a nun, but at a mere twelve years of age, she was forced to marry. After having given birth to two sons, she lived with an abusive husband until he was violently murdered some eighteen years later.
After the death of her husband, she still wanted desperately to enter the monastery, but she was refused entry because of the violence around his death. She finally entered the monastery of Saint Mary Madalene at Cascia, Italy, when she was 36 years old!
The story of her entry is considered a miracle. One night, while all the doors to the monastery were locked, she was “transported” into the convent by her patron Saints. When the nuns discovered how she got in, she was allowed to stay, and she remained there until her death.
The symbol most often associated with St. Rita is the rose. Lying in the monastery, near death, she directed a friend to the garden of her childhood home to pick a rose and bring it to her. Although it was January, the rose was blooming right where she said it would be!
Another remarkable story is how she would (against her husband’s orders) often make and take food to the poor. One day, as she was sneaking out of the house with a loaf of bread tucked within the folds of her dress, her husband ordered her to show him what she was hiding. When she obediently pulled back the fabric, she revealed a bouquet of roses!
 |
| Nathan Jonas, doing his morning meditation. |
From now on, I will remember that the Catholics believe you can say a prayer to Saint Rita, and you can expect she will be able to assist you with the seemingly impossible. Perhaps when dealing with desperate causes, her devotion works miracles. And perhaps we, too, were born hard-wired for this devotion to the divine. Looking at this photo of Nathan doing his morning meditation, everything inside me says you can know that is true.
