The church was dedicated already in 1916. Rita of Cascia Parish was established as a parish in 1972. Rita is a church of the Diocese of Fall River in Marion, Massachusetts, USA. Rita’s “Come Share Our Hope.” The Church of St. Rita returned to God on and her body is venerated in the shrine of Cascia which bears her name.Welcome to St. Rita was a woman of strength and faith – the role model of St Rita’s College, Clayfield. The tradition of Rita is that of bringing the peace, won by her great suffering, faith and courage, and beauty of Christian love into the wintry society of strife-torn Cascia. Remain in obedience to the holy Roman Church. Rita’s final words to the Sisters who gathered around her were, “Remain in the holy love of Jesus. Thus, the saint of the thorn became the saint of the rose and she, whose impossible requests had granted her, became the advocate of all those whose own requests seem impossible as well. Nevertheless, the relative pledged to meet Rita’s desire and walking from one village to another along the steep, mountainous paths, discovered, to her amazement, a single brightly-coloured rose on the bush where Rita had said it would be in the inhospitable environment. It was bitterly cold, the little streams were frozen and the trees were barren – no leaves, no flowers – and the roads were icy and dangerous. It was a small favour to ask but an impossible one in the depths of winter. The ‘Legend of the Rose’, however is the most beautiful of all.Īs Rita lay dying, she asked a relative to bring her a rose from the garden of her parents’ former home in the mountains. Up until her death Rita bore this external sign of stigmatisation and union with the Lord. At about sixty years of age, she was meditating before an image of Christ crucified when suddenly a small wound appeared on her forehead, as though a thorn from the crown that encircled Christ’s head had penetrated her own flesh. Various iconography is associated with St Rita, among those being the forehead wound – the ‘Gift of the Thorn’. Finally, in 1413, the Order gave her entry and she earned much admiration over the next forty years for her austerity, devotion to prayer and charity, striving especially to preserve peace and harmony among the warring citizens of Cascia, and alleviating the pain, anxieties and sorrow of those in need. Although completely alone, filled with sorrow and facing black despair, she allowed God to fashion a new life for her, turning her thoughts to the desired vocation of her youth – that of joining the Augustinian nuns. Such tragedies would have crushed and embittered most people, but not Rita. Having to endure the grief of her husband being ambushed and killed at the hands of war faring political factions as he returned home from work one day, disaster struck her yet again as she witnessed the death of both of her children to disease. Rita resolved to see her parents’ decision for her marriage as God’s will for her.Īs a young mother of twin sons, Rita was widowed by the age of twenty-four.

Her parents, however, according to the custom of the day, had promised her in marriage and at the age of twelve she was married to Paolo Mancini a man of strong and impetuous character. Born in 1381 near Cascia, Italy, as a young girl Rita frequently visited the convent of the Augustinian Nuns in Cascia and dreamed of one day joining their community. On 22 May each year the community of St Rita’s College celebrate the feast of our Patron Saint, Rita of Cascia.

St rita church