Rita of Casia (1381–1457)

Biography

She accepted out of obedience and they married her to a brutal and unbelieving man, from whom she had two children whom she raised Christianly. Her marriage lasted 18 years in which she was a model of patience and kindness, which softened her husband's heart before he was murdered. Some time later her children died and she decided to enter the Augustinian convent of Casia, but they did not accept her because she was a widow. Through her insistence and prayers she managed to be admitted and she lived there dedicated to prayer and penance. She offered her sufferings to Christ and as a mark of this she carried an open sore on her forehead that gave off a bad smell, so she left the community, confining herself to a secluded place in the convent until her death in the smell of holiness. Saint Rita is the advocate of impossible causes and since her canonization in 1900 by Pope Leo XIII the number of her devotees has grown greatly.