Wife, mother, widow, nun. This was the human journey that led Rita to become a saint. She is one of the best-known women in the world and, without doubt, one of the most loved and invoked by the ecclesial community after the Virgin Mary. An example of unshakable faith in God and of passionate love, to the point of sharing with Christ, for fifteen years, a thorn from His crown.
Her birth name was Margherita Lotti, daughter of Antonio and Amata Ferri. She was born in 1381 in Roccaporena, near Cascia. Her family was well-to-do, and her parents had been appointed by the municipality as peacemakers, tasked with resolving conflicts between families and preventing bloody vendettas.
She was baptized in the Augustinian church of Saint John the Baptist, and it was there that she received her religious formation and her devotion to Saint Augustine, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Nicholas of Tolentino.
At the age of 16, she married Paolo di Ferdinando di Mancino, a young Ghibelline. In time, she managed to guide his life toward God. In a context of family vendettas, Paolo fell victim to an ambush around 1406. Margherita saw him die and hid his bloodstained shirt so that her two sons—Giangiacomo and Paolo Maria—would not see it and seek revenge.
For her part, Margherita forgave her husband’s killers, thus distancing herself from the Mancini family. Unfortunately, her brothers-in-law had decided to avenge Paolo’s death, and she feared that her sons would be caught up in that spiral of violence. She wasted no time and devoted herself to prayer, asking the Lord to protect her sons from the desire for revenge. Shortly thereafter, both died of an illness.
Left alone, her life changed radically. She devoted herself to prayer and to the sacramental life. Little by little, the desire grew within her to live solely for the Lord.
She decided to enter the Augustinian monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene. She was then about 36 years old, but fulfilling her desire was not easy: her requests were rejected up to three times, probably because the nuns feared becoming involved in the family disputes. Margherita did not lose heart. She intensified her prayer and entrusted herself to her three patron saints: Saint Augustine, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Nicholas of Tolentino. The decisive turning point came when the Mancini family publicly reconciled with their adversaries.
Around the year 1407, Margherita began a new life in the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene, where she received the name Rita, the religious habit, and the Rule of Saint Augustine. She remained there for forty years, devoted to contemplation, prayer, penance, and fraternal charity.
It is said that, during the novitiate, the Mother Abbess, to test her obedience, ordered her to plant and water a dry branch. Rita carried out the task without hesitation and, to everyone’s surprise, a vine sprouted from that lifeless branch.
In love with Christ, she asked to share more intimately in His Passion. One day in 1432, while praying before the crucifix, a thorn pierced her forehead. It never left her. It disappeared only during the sole journey she made to Rome for the canonization of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino; the wound vanished before she departed and reappeared after her return to Cascia.
In January 1457, already gravely ill, she spent most of her time in her cell, praying for her sons and for her husband. Tradition relates that, one day, she asked a relative who was visiting her to bring her a rose and two figs from her garden in Roccaporena. Although the request seemed absurd in the middle of winter, the relative went to the garden and, surprisingly, found the figs and the rose, which she brought to Rita. She then understood that the Lord had accepted her prayers and had saved her loved ones.
Physically exhausted, Rita died on the night of May 21–22, 1457. It is said that, at the moment of her death, the monastery bells began to ring on their own, calling the people to pay homage to that nun who had prayed so much for her land.
In the very year of her death, the municipal authorities began to compile the miracles attributed to Rita, such as the case of a blind man who regained his sight, recorded in the Codex miraculorum. The faithful began to invoke her against the plague, since in life she had cared for those afflicted without becoming infected. Thus was born her reputation as the saint of impossible cases.
The beatification process began on October 19, 1626, under the pontificate of Urban VIII, who had been Bishop of Spoleto between 1608 and 1617. On October 2, 1627, Urban VIII granted the Diocese of Spoleto and the Order of Saint Augustine permission to celebrate Mass in honor of Blessed Rita. It was not until May 24, 1900, that Leo XIII proclaimed her a saint.
