In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
The life of Saint Rita is like a fascinating adventure.
It is entering a superior world in which the human and the divine,
the earthly and the heavenly are mixed.
Of course Rita wasn't born as a saint.
But from all eternity God had chosen her to be one
and she, in the different stages of her life as a daughter,
wife,
mother,
widow and religious,
knew how to fulfill God's will
and thus reach an eminent degree of holiness.
Rita was born in 1381 or 1382 in Roccaporena,
a small village of the municipality of Cascia
Her father was named Antonio Lotti.
Her mother, according to tradition,
was called Amata Ferri
and it seems that she was already over 40 years old and had lost hope of having children.
But God granted her the gift of this only daughter whom they named Margherita
from which her current abbreviated name of Rita comes.
Rita was baptized the same day or a few days after
her birth in the church of Santa María della Pieve de Cascia
with the name of Margherita
She would probably make her first communion when she was 12 years old as it used to be then.
She was obedient to her parents in everything
and she was very dedicated to prayer and the service of God and others.
The nuns of her convent, writing about her life, say:
After a childhood of singular innocence and purity,
all given to prayer and piety,
she felt a great desire to unite with God.
Therefore, she was trying to obtain the permission of her parents to consecrate herself to His Divine Majesty,
but she did not obtain it and was forced by them to marry.
Her parents were already somewhat advanced in age
and felt the concern of leaving her alone in the world.
And they thought that the best thing
for her was marriage so someone would watch over her.
According to the customs of her time,
it was necessary to obey the parents, who had to give consent to marry or to enter religious life.
Saint Rita of Cascia accepted the decision of her parents as God's will.
She prepared with enthusiasm to marry the young suitor
named Paolo of Fernando Mancini.
Fernando was the name of Paolo's father.
It is not known exactly at what age she was married.
It would be the year 1395
and she married in the church of San Montano de Roccaporena,
where her parents were buried and where her husband and children were buried.
She devoted herself with all her soul to serving and making her husband happy
and, at the same time, she took care of her parents,
working in the house and in the fields.
But her life was not easy.
Father Simonetti says in his biography of the saint:
Today, in the monastery of Saint Rita,
verses written in honor of the saint can be found which were preserved shortly after her death
by a certain Father Nicolás
an Augustinian hermit,
which make it known that she was married by her devoted father to a willing but resentful young man.
The nuns of her convent wrote about her in 1628:
Rita agreed to a husband with harsh habits
so that she would not lack a continuous exercise of religious tolerance at home;
but Rita, with her good-naturedness,
overcame her husband's harshness
and for 18 years she lived with him in good harmony, admired by all.
As we can see,
Saint Rita loved him and changed his feelings of violence over time,
being more relaxed and tolerant.
Even having belonged to the party of the Ghibellines, contrary to the Pope,
he separated himself from them.
From their marriage they had two sons,
who seem to have been twins,
and tradition has named them
Giangiacomo Giovanni Antonio
and Paulo Maria.
Both were baptized in the church of Santa María della Pieve de Cascia
Rita was an exemplary mother for them,
attending to their needs in everything.
Likewise, for her husband she was a model of patience and tolerance.
Thus passed 18 years of marriage.
After 18 years of married life, her husband was murdered.
What was the reason?
Some speak of the popular revolution that broke out in 1413
between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines
In Roccaporena there were many Guelphs,
while the Ghibellines ruled in the city of Cascia
It seems that Paolo had served with the Ghibellines and could have political enemies.
It probably happened in the year 1413,
when Rita was about 32 years old.
From the first moment, she knew how to forgive murderers.
And, to avoid revenge from her children,
it is said that she hid her husband's bloody shirt.
But the problem was not solved by her forgiveness.
In that atmosphere of struggle and revenge,
the husband's brothers and relatives wanted revenge.
Rita saw with pain how they constantly spoke of revenge and thus poisoned the spirits of her children,
who would be around 15 years old.
Rita dedicated herself intensely to praying to avoid revenge
that her children might be involved in.
Under these circumstances,
she may have shared with the Lord the wish that she would rather see her children dead than murderers.
In fact, the two youngsters died within a year,
probably due to the plague that struck that region.