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Rita
was born in Italy in the fourteenth century. Her dream of becoming
a nun was thwarted when her elderly parents married her off
to Paolo Mancini who turned out to be an abusive, womanizing
gangster. Rita devoted herself to him and their two sons but
after eighteen years of patiently enduring her husbands brutal
beatings and infidelities she was saved from her unhappy marriage
when Paolo was violently murdered by local thugs. Rita prayed
for intervention when her sons vowed to avenge their father’s
death and they were miraculously spared from having blood on
their hands when they took sick and died. Left alone, Rita was
determined to live the religious life she dreamed of as a child.
She was refused entrance by the local monastery because of her
husband’s associations, as well as her non-virginal status,
but after much prayer and persistence she was eventually admitted.
After hearing a powerful sermon about the crown of thorns Rita
prayed to Jesus that she could share in his suffering and, according
to legend, a bloody thorn from Christ’s crown was propelled
into her forehead. The stench from her festering wound forced
people to keep their distance and she lived the remainder of
her life in solitude. After her death her body remained incorrupt
and her malodorous stench was miraculously transformed to the
sweet smell of roses which is said to surround her at the convent
where her corpse is currently on display. Rita is also the patron
of desperate cases and abused spouses and she's invoked against
bleeding, infertility, tumors and unhappy marriage; Her feast
day is May 22. |
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| St.
Rita
Patron St. of
Loneliness |
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