Saint Rita
Cascia 的圣徒 Rita
圣徒Rita ( – ) 出生在 Cascia 附近的 Roccaporena 的主教管区 (Spoleto), . 名字或
许是Margherita 的缩短。
在该教区那里有一座周围有几只蜂围绕的Rita 雕像。 这似乎出现在她小时候
的故事中, 在她的洗礼的那天, 白色蜂群在这个婴孩附近围绕，而她正睡著在
她的小儿床里。蜜蜂从她的嘴里进进出出。 她的家人似乎被迷惑了而不是
惊动了。现在回过头来看, 这些蜂是她的日后被Urban 教皇VIII 世赐福的象征
。
12岁时，她父母安排了她的婚姻, 尽管Rita 一再乞求他们允许她进入女修道院
. Rita 的丈夫是个脾气暴躁人。 因此她的丈夫在这个区域树敌众多，一夜, 他
被袭击遇害了。 (一些人认为他被伏击, 他挑衅了其他人发生争吵并且被杀
害了。)
丈夫死后，Rita 继续照料她的儿子, 而她的两个儿子变得像他们暴躁的父亲
，他们长大后发誓为父亲报仇。 Rita 寻求说服他们, 告诉他们 这样滥害会是
谋杀的罪恶。 她并且向神祈祷,愿 他们不会执行他们的计划。 好像神听到了
她的祷告，两个儿子并没有犯下谋杀罪而是在几年后自然死亡的。
她的丈夫和儿子过世之后, 她进入在 Cascia的圣徒修道院 ，从36岁开始她呆
在那里直到她的死亡 . 她被Urban 教皇VIII 世受宣福礼。
20 世纪初期圣徒Rita 的一个大圣所被修造了在Cascia: 它和她出生的房子是 最
活跃的朝圣站点 . 圣徒Rita, 与 圣徒Jude 一起被誉为"失去的起因的" 受护神。
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Saint Rita (1381 – May 22 1457), a pre-eminent Augustinian saint was born at Roccaporena near Cascia in the Diocese of Spoleto, Italy. The name is perhaps a shortening of Margherita, the Italian version of the name "Margaret".
She was wife to a rich man named Paulo, mother of twin boys named James Anthony and Paul Maria, and after the murder of her husband and the death her two sons, she spent 40 years as a nun living to the The Augustinian Rule in the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalen at Cascia.
In the parish church of Laarne, near Ghent, there is a statue of Saint Rita in which several bees feature. This seems to arise from the story that, on the day after her baptism, a swarm of white bees was seen around the baby as she was asleep in her crib. They peacefully went in and out of her mouth, not injuring her in any way. Her family seems to have been mystified rather than alarmed. Later, and in retrospect, the bees were seen as representing her subsequent beatification by Pope Urban VIII.
Rita was married at age 12 to Paolo Mancini. Her husband was brutal, dissolute and uncontrolled. She endured his insults, abuses and infidelities for eighteen years, and watched as her two sons grew up to be like their father. Her parents arranged her marriage, despite the fact that Rita repeatedly begged them to allow her to enter a convent. Rita's husband was a rich man of quick temper who made enemies in the region, and one night he was set upon and killed. Some accounts say he was ambushed, others that he provoked a quarrel and was killed. Rita's husband is said to have repented to the church and Rita toward the end of his life, and Rita forgave him for his transgressions against her.
While Rita continued to care for her sons, it became clear as they grew up they were intent upon exacting revenge for the death of their father. Rita sought to persuade them otherwise, telling them such a killing would be murder. She also prayed they would not carry out their plans. James and Paul died of natural causes within the year, begging forgiveness of their mother.
With her husband and sons gone, Rita wanted to enter the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene at Cascia but was spurned for being a widow; virginity is a requirement for entry into the convent and sisterhood. She persisted several times, though, and was finally given a condition to enter: to reconcile her family with her husband's murderers. Rita worked hard to obtain this goal, and after both clans were reconciled when she was 36 years old, Rita was allowed to enter the monastery. It is also said that, while the sisters slept and despite locked doors, Rita was miraculously transported into the convent by her patron saints John the Baptist, St. Augustine, and St. Nicholas of Tolentino. When she was found in the morning and the sisters learned how she had gotten into the convent, the sisters could not turn her away. While she was there, it is said that a thorn detached itself from Christ's crown of thorns and set itself in her forehead - hence the representation of a head wound in her appearance. Rita remained at the monastery until her death in 1457.
The symbol most often associated with Rita is the rose. One of the stories surrounding Rita and roses is that Rita would regularly bring food to the poor, which her husband prohibited her from doing. One day, her husband confronted her as she was leaving to bring bread to the poor. The bread was concealed in Rita's robes; when she uncovered the bread as her husband demanded, the bread became roses and Rita was spared her husband's wrath. At the end of her life, when Rita was bedridden in the convent, a friend from her home town visited her. The friend asked if there was anything Rita wanted from her old home. Rita replied that she would like a rose from the garden. It was January, and although the friend did not expect to find anything in the garden, she went to the house and found one rose blooming. She brought the rose back to Rita at the convent. The rose is though to represent God's love for Rita and Rita's ability to intercede on behalf of lost causes or impossible cases. Rita is often depicted holding roses or with roses nearby. On her feast day, churches and shrines of St. Rita provide roses to the congregation that are blessed by priests during mass.
She was beatified by Urban VIII in 1627, to whose private secretary Fausto Cardinal Poli, born less than ten miles from her birthplace, much of the impetus behind her cult is due; she was canonized on May 24, 1900 by Pope Leo XIII. Her feast day is May 22.
A large sanctuary of Saint Rita was built in the early 20th century in Cascia: it and the house in which she was born are among the most active pilgrimage sites of Umbria. Saint Rita, along with Saint Jude is a patron saint of "Lost Causes".
