Rita is a “complete” saint because she lived as a woman, a gentle and caring daughter; a beloved and faithful wife; a tender and understanding mother, committed to the Christian education of her two sons; a devoted widow who never withdrew into herself; a nun overflowing with love for God and neighbor… and a saint! It seems almost impossible that so many experiences and situations could have come together in her life, so that people turn to her certain that they will be understood and that their difficulties will be recognized. Her reputation as the “saint of impossible causes” means that people turn to her even when it seems there is nothing left to do. Indeed, she lived with the firm conviction that, by relying on God, everything is possible. And this is what she teaches us today as well.
The Strength of Saint Rita
Saint John Paul II asked: «Why is Rita a saint?» and answered: «Not so much because of the fame of the miracles that popular devotion attributes to the effectiveness of her intercession before almighty God, but because of the astonishing “ordinariness” of daily life, which she lived first as a wife and mother, then as a widow and finally as an Augustinian nun».
These words emphasize that Saint Rita was simply one of our sisters who preceded us in living an ordinary life, yet woven through with the light and unceasing presence of God, who never abandons his creatures, especially in times of pain and distress. And this is precisely where her strength lies.
Rita bore witness through her life to the joy of immediate and generous forgiveness, intense and sincere fraternal love, complete and filial trust in God, and the cross carried with Christ and for Christ.
For this reason, Saint Rita, through her example, remains even today a great model to imitate; like her, we must fall in love with God and place him at the center of our lives.
Saint Rita’s Message
Rita passed on her message without ever writing anything, but by using the concrete example of daily life, shaped by love for God and love for her brothers and sisters. Precisely for this reason, her message is always relevant: God is love. And whoever remains in love remains in God, and God remains in them.
The Saint’s life gives us a message of love made concrete in the offering of forgiveness and the acceptance of suffering for the love of Christ: «Humility and obedience were the paths along which Rita walked toward an ever more perfect conformity to the Crucified One» (Saint John Paul II).
Her devotion to the Cross was so great that one Good Friday, after attending a sermon on the Passion, overcome by love for Christ Crucified, she was pierced in the forehead by a thorn from the crown, causing her pain that lasted until her death. Hers was truly a life marked by the cross; she endured suffering because she understood the wisdom of the cross, transforming pain into an love that gives without asking anything for itself. Once again, it is John Paul II who describes Saint Rita’s uniqueness in living through suffering: «A disciple of the Crucified One and experienced in suffering, she learned to understand the pains of the human heart. Rita thus became an advocate for the poor and desperate, obtaining for those who invoked her in the most diverse situations countless graces of consolation and comfort».
The Family at the Center
In Rita’s life, the value of the family appears first and foremost. She was a wife and mother and is considered the patron saint of marriages, especially difficult ones. For families today, called to face multiple challenges that they often cannot overcome, the example of this Augustinian Saint restores faith in Marriage as a vocation and a path to holiness. Above all, she invites families to recover the conviction that marriage is willed by God and is the place where a man and a woman reflect God’s love and become his generous and exclusive co-workers in transmitting life.
Even in widowhood, Rita was courageous because she did not shut herself away in her sorrow, but knew how to turn her painful personal and family experience into love for the Lord and for her neighbor through active and generous charity. This path can be followed and imitated by widowed people, who can find in her reasons to rise again, even in their difficult situation.
Rita is also a mother who mourns her dead children; she is thus associated with Our Lady of Sorrows, with whom she shares the month (Rita’s feast is May 22) and the rose as a symbolic flower.
Even today, we can live by allowing those values that belonged to Saint Rita, which she lived and left us as an example, to guide us concretely in our choices and relationships. Thus, love, forgiveness, peace, justice, solidarity, are still forces of attraction today.
The Shocking Lesson of Forgiveness
Saint Rita, who grew up in a period when revenge and conflict were the norm, had the strength to choose forgiveness and reconciliation. It was not easy, but she put into practice the precious teachings she received from her mother and father, who were “peacemakers of Christ,” dedicated to reconciling family feuds. Not only did she choose to forgive her husband’s killers publicly, but she fervently prayed to the Lord to break the spiral of bloodshed caused by her husband’s death and prevent her two sons from taking revenge. For this reason, as a true woman of peace and as a mother, she preferred to offer the lives of her two sons to God rather than let them live in hatred to avenge their father’s death. A woman of dialogue and reconciliation, she did not allow herself to be overcome by evil, but conquered evil with good. And the path she suggests to all of us consists of humility, sacrifice, listening to others, patience, generosity, tolerance, and the pursuit of dialogue, understanding, and mercy. It is not simple, but it is the only path that brings us closer to God and makes everything possible. Her example of faith reminds us that forgiveness can be attained only by building it on prayer and that violence never resolves conflicts, but increases their consequences, which are always dramatic for everyone.
Building forgiveness means opening, indeed flinging open, the doors to others, seeking to mediate and rebuild dialogue, so that we may experience the Lord’s love.
A Teacher of Holiness Made of Ordinary Gestures
Rita truly is the strong woman and wise virgin who, in every state of life, shows the authentic path to holiness as faithful following of Christ unto death. The example of this woman in love with God reminds us that it is time to propose once again, with conviction, this «“high standard” of ordinary Christian life» to everyone. Pope Francis wrote: «We are all called to be saints by living with love and offering each our own witness in our daily occupations wherever we find ourselves. Are you a consecrated woman or man? Be holy by living your dedication with joy. Are you married? Be holy by loving and caring for your husband or wife […]. Do you have authority? Be holy by working for the common good and renouncing your personal interests» (Gaudete et Exultate, 14). Therefore, the path to holiness is not made up of heroic deeds, but of ordinary gestures performed, however, in an extraordinary way, like those of the Saint of Cascia.
Saint Rita’s Rose
The rose is the symbol associated with Saint Rita, who was the sweet fragrance of Jesus and knew how to accept thorns as a gift of love for him.
The traditional blessing of roses, indispensable on Saint Rita’s feast day (May 22), is not merely a ritual: in that fragrance spreading through the streets not only of Cascia, there is the fragrance of holiness. The model she calls women and men to is this: a life open to others, courageous in love and charity, available for dialogue, and devoted to building peace.
Saint Rita’s message has reached us, powerful and precious; it is therefore up to us to make it our own and put it into practice.
To each of us, Rita gives her rose: by receiving it spiritually, let us commit ourselves to living as witnesses of hope; in our daily actions, let us concretely allow ourselves to be accompanied by the love, forgiveness, dialogue, and humility that our beloved Saint Rita has sown through the centuries to this day.
What is your relationship with Saint Rita? Have you ever turned to her to ask for impossible favors?
Write about it in the comments!
