Saint Rita of Cascia

Rita of Cascia was born of a very devout mother and father who, in times when families were feuding amongst themselves, were called by some, "Jesus Christ’s peacemakers," it would appear from the very moment of her birth, God had special designs on Rita of Cascia.

 There is a tradition in Roccaporena that as an infant, while she slept in a basket, in the fields where her parents were working, white bees swarmed around Rita’s open mouth. Not only did the bees not sting her, but it is said that they dropped honey into her mouth without her uttering a cry of warning to her parents. One of the farmers, seeing the swarm of bees, tried to disperse them with his arm that had been deeply wounded by a scythe. His arm stopped bleeding and he was immediately healed.

Almost two hundred years after Rita of Cascia died, a strange thing began to happen. At the Monastery in Cascia, white bees came out of the walls of the Monastery during Holy Week of each year and remained until the feast day of St. Rita, May 22nd, when they returned to hibernation until Holy Week of the following year. Pope Urban VIII, learning of the mysterious bees which buzzed about the walls of the Monastery where St. Rita of Cascia had lived, requested that one of the them be brought to him in Rome. After a careful examination of the bee, he tied a silk thread around it; then set it free, only to have it later discovered in its hive at the Monastery in Cascia, 138 kilometers away. And so the tradition of the bees began. The holes in the wall where the bees traditionally remain until the following year, are plainly in view for pilgrims journeying till today to the Monastery. Coincidence or miracle? We are believers in miracles! When we see the Lord’s intervention in a physical way that would otherwise be considered unconventional or phenomenal, for us, it’s just His way of letting us know that He is with us, watching over us. Since the very breath we breathe is a miracle, we think we can call the extraordinary miraculous.

Rita of Cascia - Early Years

Her parents, without ever having learned how to read or write, taught Rita of Cascia from the time she was a child, all about Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and some of the better known Saints. Rita, much the same as her counterpart St. Catherine of Siena, was never schooled to read or write. Whereas St. Catherine was miraculously given the grace to read by Our Lord Jesus, St. Rita’s only book was the Crucifix.

They felt she would be more secure married to a fine man. It never occurred to Rita to question their advice, or their command. Rita had consecrated her life to her Savior, but she could not cause pain to her aged parents who were so plainly worried about her future. Therefore, like with others in our Lord’s plan, God would have to open the right doors and close the wrong ones. We don’t really know why they picked the husband they did. By man’s standards, the choice of Paolo Ferdinando as her husband was, at best, an unwise decision. Rita, the obedient daughter, married at twelve years of age, and began eighteen years of pure hell.

Rita had doubtlessly heard of St. Augustine’s mother, St. Monica from the Augustinian hermits who lived in Cascia. As the dutiful wife of Paolo, she would need the same kind of persistent, relentless prayer for conversion of her husband, that St. Monica prayed for her sinning son, Augustine. Rita never prayed for her husband to love her, to treat her attentively, to be kind, to cease drinking or being abusive as the result of the drinking, or to remain at home with her and the two sons born of their marriage. She prayed for his soul, unconditionally, that he would give his life over to Jesus and be converted. As her children grew, she could see that they were greatly influenced by their father’s behavior. Her heart broke for them. But, as in the case of St. Monica, she prayed for them as she prayed for her husband.

Rita of Cascia - Marriage to Paolo

After many long years and many spilled tears of crying out for mercy for her husband, Rita’s prayers were answered by the Lord. Paolo was converted. He repented his past, begged forgiveness from her and his God, and became a model husband, father and Christian. He gave up his old ways and old friends, spending his time now with Rita and their sons. He tried to convince his sons that his former life had been wicked. He begged them not to follow in his ways. But children have a way of protecting their minds. If a parent does something, whether the law or the Church deem it wrong, it must be right, because their parent is doing it. This was the case with Paolo and his boys. He had convinced them over the years, that his wild and adulterous behavior was acceptable; they had a problem with this new image he presented them.

With Rita of Cascia, Paolo’s life became one of prayer, a searching for this loving, forgiving God he had for so long blocked out of his life. Rita began to think that maybe the hell of eighteen years was over. She was so very happy! Perhaps God had really meant for her to be married. All those years she had been so torn. Was God angry she had not followed her course to become a Nun? Had her parents guided her unwisely? Now she had peace, at last! It was so wonderful, but so short-lived.

Although Paolo had changed his ways, his enemies had not. His drinking, quarrelsome, violent ex-friends, did not appreciate looking upon the change in him because it brought to light the darkness in their own souls. One night as the hours ticked away very late into the night, Rita of Cascia began to really worry. Paolo had not come home. She would never have been concerned with the old Paolo. There were times when he had not come home for days at a time.

Rita of Cascia - Tragedy

But she knew the new Paolo had not turned his back on Jesus, nor on her and the boys, so although she tried her best, she could not overcome the fear that was to become a reality. Suddenly all the years of dreading a knock on the door, and the final, fatal words, "Your husband has been murdered!" came crashing down on her. Early in the morning, her husband’s lifeless body was brought to her. She held the husband she had waited so long for, the horrible years no longer even a memory, and she sobbed as if her heart would break. The prodigal son had returneth, and he was dead!