Rita of Cascia

Margherita Lotti, better known as Rita of Cascia, was born in 1381 in Roccaporena, near Cascia, Italy. From a young age, she wished to enter a convent, but her parents arranged her marriage to a violent man. She endured her marriage and his abuses for 18 years, bearing two sons. After her husband's murder and the subsequent deaths of her two sons, she was admitted to the monastery of the Augustinian Sisters of Saint Mary Magdalene in Cascia in 1411. There, she led a life of prayer, penance, and service. She is particularly known for having received a thorn from Christ's crown of thorns on her forehead, a partial stigmata, which she bore for 15 years. She died on May 22, 1457. Beatified in 1628 and canonized in 1900 by Pope Leo XIII, Saint Rita is the patroness of desperate and impossible causes, the sick, and unhappy wives.