The cult of Saint Rita of Cascia has something inexplicable. Lived between the end of the first half of the '300 and '400 and immediately invoked and venerated as a saint, but Rita was beatified and canonized only in 1628 even in 1900, but the Christian people has always shown an incredible attachment.
For the miracles, of course. Even for those rich in legends is the story of his life.
Especially as she is affectionately called "the Saint of the impossible ', ie that which can be ask a favor in the most desperate and intractable.
Tradition gives birth to Rita in 1381 and died in 1457, but those dates are considered uncertain.
We can say that Rita has inherited the Church as he left St. Catherine of Siena (who dies, in fact, a year before his birth): A Church out of the tragedy of 'exile in Avignon and relapse in tragedy the great Western Schism (which will be resolved only in 1417). But
Cascia was quite decentralized compared to historical events and the great ecclesial questions, as he was stationed on the borders of the Kingdom of the Papal States and Naples, straight as a Republic with stringent statutes and politically divided into factions of Guelphs and Ghibellines.
We know with certainty that belonged to Rita and bourgeois environment was not without education: tradition speaks of his parents rather elderly and some miracle that would have accompanied the birth (the most famous being that of bees that are placed on the mouth small as an infant, with no sting, as to lay their honey).
The ancient chronicles also speak of his childhood, "passed by a singular innocence and piety ... in great desire to unite closely with God."
Instinctively, we would be tempted to give these stories to the sensitivity characteristic of an era far removed from ours, in which boys and girls grow up with attractive and very different concerns from those of adolescents today.
However we have an interesting book that circulated in Cascia in those days, entitled Rules for some devout souls: a manual that would serve to good examination of conscience and confession.
In particular, by reading the chapter the vanity of women, we know what were the problems and sins of the girls the same age of Rita:
"Think if the browned them capilla toi facto or wrinkle above the eyes, or if true to wash them with water or artificial ... if you were the sun behind the hills super capilla to make them more beautiful. If brought to the head or crown of pearls or flickering de France de garlands of flowers or silk, or velvet of silk or linen very de Sutil, artificial ... If you walk to the Mass, the sermon or other not so much pardon for love of devotion to God or not in remission of sins toi, because the facts and yearn to be courted, to say that if other: yes that is a beautiful creature. If when you dress up for something new in you will receive great consolation and dilecta so that not only your soul el circles this is busy, but still the night, and the de vestemente de anemia little or no n ' to care .... "
Adventure Rita began his spiritual with a miracle: the miracle of a "Word" Gospel heard in all its depth and breadth, in which she decided to devote himself completely, agreeing to embody the word in his life. So
show, in fact, the biographical sources:
"According to Mass once, that our Blessed Rita in Cascia [...] the s'improntarono his intellect so these holy words:" Ego sum Via Veritas et Vita ' that ... so he began to consider, which began ardently to love this quell'hora Jesu, and to serve ... [...] could not tell the truth if not talking Him, nor could live if not with him, or he could walk only with Him, nor in fact use some skill never any good without him ... So tightly hugged and squeezed her sweet Jesu. "
The girl then felt the desire to consecrate themselves to God, remaining in that cloistered monastery where he had heard that crucial and fascinating "Word", but the will of the parents was crucial since even according to the statutes in force at Cascia, and she had accept that her husband was assigned.
Some reporters say that they gave to a young bride "costume very bitter", some even described him as "very fierce man will."
At this point, it is necessary dwell a bit 'on the social and political situation at the time of Cascia.
A document of the time called it "a country full of bias and revenge ': Guelphs against the Ghibellines, nobles and bourgeois oppression against plebeians, quarrels and vendettas between families, popular revolts, factional fights.
The worst was that any violence dilated like wildfire: the smoldering hatred for generations and extended to neighbors and relatives, revenge could be reached even after decades. If
then there was a half a women's issue, or honor, jealousy and revenge were so absurd so fierce that it was said that a father, having married a daughter, he had to be careful to greet her when he met the street.
This premise is necessary if you want to take the figure of Santa Rita in its complexity and humanity: not only a fervent Christian, animated by a great spiritual transport, but with a wife and a mother who, like most women living in Cascia in those years, faced family tragedies painful.
was probably in 1401 that Rita's husband was killed in an ambush.
murder was likely a consequence of the popular rebellion broke out in the same year against the mayor.
Rita was the mother of two boys, maybe twins, about fourteen years.
anxiety for the death of the loved (so much so that Rita had succeeded in changing the character and make it sweet and tender) is made even worse by the thought of blood feud about to erupt. Rita, in fact, knew his land and his people and knew that it would begin unstoppable series of reprisals. If you already
course was difficult to educate their children to lose, this became impossible in a social environment that was anxious for revenge.
families linked to family killed her husband, in fact, looked to his boys, enough adults for ransom and restore his honor: they were now destined to violence, to do it first and then, in turn, shaped by it.
does not stay in their turn killed, in fact, the statutes provided for Cascia however, the death penalty for the avengers.
Ideally they would have to escape the city and live as refugees away from the mother.
Thus, the reporter said that Rita "gave himself with wonderful Charité soften their minds and put them not only to forgetfulness, but to forgive the crime committed."
He had, however, realize that even she could impress upon the hearts of children the law of forgiveness. The Santa arrived so far as to pray to God that resumption with him his sons, who saw a terrible fate of death assigned. An act unacceptable to the modern sensibility, but that shows the full confidence that Rita had towards God
Left alone, the unfortunate mother thought also to entrust herself completely in the hands of the Lord Church, therefore, to enter the Augustinian convent.
was however refused. The sad events of his life continued to weigh: accept a "widow of blood" in the monastery meant feud also involved in that sacred place and its guests.
Rita realized that those doors would not open if it did not first come to a reconciliation between the relatives of the man who and what of the murdered man.
And she faced the difficulty of establishing bonds of forgiveness. How much hatred and resentment that had to accept upon himself, and how much waste as contempt, before you melt the hardened hearts?
was a long and exhausting work, and despite this, the result was like a miracle.
tradition merely to tell the nuns refused several times to open the doors of the monastery, until Rita was unable to enter the cloistered behind closed doors, miraculously guided and assisted by St. John the Baptist, St. Augustine and St. Nicholas of Tolentino (the patrons of the place).
S. Accompanied by St. Rita in the monastery And by St. Augustine Nicola
And there, in a small cell, Rita led a life of penance and prayer.
Almost everything we know about the spiritual experience of Rita and her path of holiness, we know from a witness feature: the paintings and poetry given by an inscription on his coffins.
The image that stands out is that of a strong woman who took the Cross of Christ and his light his fire, which were not spared the world the most atrocious suffering and wounds more obscure, incurable, and that nothing considered his on whether or not the gain to receive a crown of thorns of Christ.
In any representation, Rita always carries the sign in front of his mystical plague.
During the last days of life was another episode to decorate and embellish his legend:
"In the harshest penalty of the winter, since everything is covered with snow, it was good relative to visit, starting in the home asked if her anything she wanted. Rita replied that she wanted a rose and two figs from her garden. He smiled the good woman, believing she delirious violence of evil, and left. When she arrived home and came to another end of the garden, he saw the bones stripped of all vegetables and full of snow a beautiful rose, and plant two ripe figs, and remained very astonished to the opposition of the season and the quality of that cold climate, saw the flower and fruit miraculous Rita caught them and took them. "
E 'this is the episode that explains the tradition of the roses: wherever there is a church dedicated to her in his feast day (May 22), it's all a rush of devotees carrying bouquets of roses that are blessed.
not only a miracle, but a mystical exchange: For many years Rita had brought on his face the painful wound of the spine, and now, at the end of his suffering, Christ gave himself in exchange for a rose. Rita
When he died, there was a continuous influx of friends and devotees, while a strong smell emanating from his body to the point that it, according to ancient testimony, "was never buried, and was never corrupt."
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