Saint Rita was born in Roccaporena (Cascia) in around 1380. According to tradition she was an only child and towards the end of her adolescence she wanted to devote herself to God but, on the insistence of her parents, she was given away in marriage to a young man of violent disposition. After her husband was assassinated and following the death of her two children, she was welcomed into the Augustinian monastery of Saint Maria Maddalena in Cascia. She lived here for 40 years in humility and charity, in prayer and penitence. In the last 15 years of her life, she wore on her forehead the sign of her profound union with crucified Jesus. She died on May 22 1457. Celebrated as a performer of miracles, her body is venerated in the sanctuary in Cascia, a site of continuous pilgrimage. Blessed by Urbano VIII in 1627, she was canonised on May 24 1900 by Leone XIII. She is considered a saint of forgiveness and a peacemaker of Christ. In the evening of May 18 a solemn procession accompanies the transferral of the image of Saint Rita from the church of San Pietro alle Scale to the Church di Sant’Agostino. Here for three successive days the image of the saint is venerated and on May 22 a rose, the flower symbol of Rita, is distributed to all the faithful. The cumulative moments of the mystic road trodden by Saint Rita (1381-1457) that made her a universally venerated saint are her childhood and her adolescence illuminated by the wise and peaceful teachings of her parents, her troubled marriage, the death of her own children, the obedience of the years spent in the Augustinian monastery and her sanctity, whose indisputable sign were the stigmata imprinted on her forehead.

Sources: santiebeati.it; santaritadacascia.org