Saint Rita of Cascia Healing Prayer| InJesusName
It was during this most valuable time in my life that a good friend introduced me to Santa Rita de Cascia, the “Advocate of the Impossible.” St. Rita is venerated at the San Agustin Church in Intramuros, Manila. St. Rita celebrates her feast day on May 22. Born in 1381 in the village of Roccaporena, Italy, she desired to be part of the community of Augustinian nuns in the monastery in Cascia. But, as was the custom at the time, she was betrothed by her parents to marry a villager, Paolo Mancini. On turning 18, the couple were married and settled in the house her parents had left her in Roccaporena. The union bore twin boys and Rita found herself occupied with her role as wife, mother and homemaker, while Paolo’s job as a watchman of the town often dragged him into with between the two feuding political clans at that time. The strain and tension of his position as a minor official of the town often spilled into the Mancini household, notwithstanding the dangers his world exposed him to. One day, while returning home from work, Paolo was ambushed and killed. Rita’s pain brought by her husband’s unexpected and violent death was compounded more by the fear that her two sons would seek revenge. Rita prayed for their material and spiritual salvation, and she thanked God when the two boys died peacefully of natural causes, free of the guilt of murder, a short time later. Now a widow and without family, Rita’s thoughts turned once more to the desired vocation of her youth. Her first attempt to join the Augustinian nuns of St. Mary Magdalene monastery in Cascia was denied, however, to avoid disrupting the harmony of the convent because some of the religious people in the community were relatives of the rival clan. But she was not to be easily dissuaded, and prayed for the assistance of her three favorite saints — St. John the Baptist, St. Augustine and St. Nicolas of Tolentine — as she set about the task of establishing peace between the warring parties of Cascia. Her success in forging peace between the feuding clans, no mean feat, assured her entry into the monastery. InJesusName
