{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_52481/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_52481","id":"gutenberg_52481","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/52481","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian saints -- Italy -- Cascia -- Biography","Rita, of Cascia, Saint, 1381?-1457"],"text":"[Frontispiece: ST. RITA RECEIVES HER MIRACULOUS WOUND]\n\n\n\n\n  LIFE OF ST. RITA\n  OF CASCIA, O.S.A.\n\n\n  from the Italian\n\n\n  BY\n  VERY REV. RICHARD CONNOLLY\n  O.S.A., D.D.\n\n\n\n  R. & T. WASHBOURNE\n  4 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON\n  BENZIGER BROS.: NEW YORK, CINCINNATI AND CHICAGO\n  1903\n\n\n\n\n  Nihil Obstat:\n      FR. JOANNES L. CONDON, O.S.A.,\n          CENS. DEPUTATUS.\n\n\n  PERMISSION TO PUBLISH\n\n  We approve of the publication of the 'Life of\n  St. Rita of Cascia,' from the Italian, by the\n  Very Rev. Fr. Richard Connolly, O.S.A., D.D.\n\n      FR. W. O'SULLIVAN, O.S.A.,\n          VICAR PROVINCIAL.\n  CORK, _Feast of St. Patrick_, 1903.\n\n  Imprimatur:\n      HERBERTUS CARDINALIS VAUGHAN,\n          ARCHIEPISCOPUS WESTMONASTERIENSIS.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nPART I\n\nRITA IN THE WORLD\n\nCHAPTER\n\n  I. CASCIA: A GLANCE AT ITS HISTORY\n  II. RITA'S PARENTS\n  III. RITA'S WONDERFUL CONCEPTION\n  IV. RITA'S BIRTH\n  V. THE WHITE BEES OF ST. RITA\n  VI. RITA'S CHILDHOOD\n  VII. RITA'S LOVE OF RETIREMENT\n  VIII. RITA'S MARRIAGE\n  IX. RITA AS WIFE\n  X. DEATH OF RITA'S HUSBAND AND CHILDREN--RITA AS WIDOW\n\n\nPART II\n\nRITA IN THE CLOISTER\n\n  I. RITA'S MIRACULOUS ENTRY INTO THE CLOISTER AND HER RECEPTION\n  II. RITA AS NOVICE--HER PROFESSION\n  III. RITA'S CHARITY\n  IV. OTHER VIRTUES WHICH RITA PRACTISED IN THE CLOISTER\n  V. RITA'S OBSERVANCE OF THE RELIGIOUS VOWS\n  VI. RITA'S PENANCES\n  VII. RITA'S SPIRIT OF PRAYER\n  VIII. A THORN FROM THE SAVIOUR'S CROWN OF THORNS WOUNDS RITA'S FOREHEAD\n  IX. RITA GOES TO ROME TO GAIN THE INDULGENCE OF THE JUBILEE\n  X. RITA'S LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH\n\n\nPART III\n\nRITA IN HEAVEN\n\n  I. WONDERFUL EVENTS THAT HAPPENED AT RITA'S DEATH--BURIAL OF HER SACRED BODY\n  II. MIRACLES WROUGHT BY GOD THROUGH RITA'S INTERCESSION BEFORE HER BEATIFICATION\n  III. EFFICACY OF THE RELICS OF ST. RITA\n  IV. MARVELS OF ST. RITA'S SEPULCHRE\n  V. IMMEMORIAL WORSHIP OF ST. RITA\n  VI. SOLEMN BEATIFICATION OF RITA\n  VII. MIRACLES WORKED BY RITA AFTER HER BEATIFICATION\n  VIII. MORE RECENT MIRACLES OF ST. RITA\n  IX. HER CANONIZATION\n  X. THE THREE MIRACLES APPROVED FOR HER CANONIZATION\n\nCONCLUSION\n\n\n\n\nPart I\n\nRITA IN THE WORLD\n\n\n\nLIFE OF ST. RITA OF CASCIA\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nCASCIA: A GLANCE AT ITS HISTORY\n\nSt. Bernard observes that the place in which our Saviour died attracts\nour devotion in a greater degree than any of those places in which He\ndwelt during His life, and can therefore boast of a certain\npre-eminence.  Speaking of St. Rita, we can say the same of Cascia\ncompared with Rocca Porena, her birthplace.  Cascia governed Rocca\nPorena as did Jerusalem Nazareth, but it is not on this account we\nclaim its superiority, but because our saint lived there for many years\nand died there, and there her relics are venerated.  Cascia is\ntherefore looked upon as St. Rita's home, and hence she is called St.\nRita of Cascia.  Were we but to give a cursory sketch of the history of\nCascia from its annals, which still exist, the present volume could not\ncontain what we should be forced to write, so important did it become;\nwe will therefore content ourselves with alluding to a few of the more\nsalient points in its story.\n\nThis ancient and illustrious town is built under the shadow of the\nApennines, at a point in that chain of mountains almost midway between\nthe Alps and the Mediterranean.  It is on the borders of Umbria, seven\nmiles from Norcia, ten from Leonessa, thirty from Rieti, and\ntwenty-three from Spoleto.  It stands on the site of the ancient\nCursula, which is believed to have been a Roman free-town--that is, its\npeople enjoyed the honours, rights, and privileges of Roman\ncitizenship, and their town was governed by its own laws.  That Cursula\nwas a town of some importance is attested by its remains, which are\nstill extant, notably by the Temple of the Augurs, the Temple of Mars,\nand the House of the Duumviri.\n\nWe have nothing else than these remains to guide us in inquiring into\nthe history of Cursula, nor can we surmise the epoch from whence to\ndate its existence.  We know from Dionysius of Halicarnassus that it\nwas destroyed, and that a new town rose on the ruins of the original\none, but the dates of these events cannot be fixed with certainty.  The\ndate of the rebuilding of Cursula may, with some probability, be placed\nat something more than ten years before the birth of our Saviour, and\nhence its pagan inhabitants were strengthening the foundations of its\nfuture greatness when Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem, was laying the\n_foundation of the Redemption of man_.  We know, too, that it was a\nrepublic, but are left in the dark as to how it managed to achieve and\npreserve its independence.  It is credible that, like other Italian\ncities, it acquired its liberty at the time of the second fall of the\nRoman Empire, after the death of the Emperor-Saint Henry, during the\nPontificate of John XIX., or about the year 1025.  This independence it\nretained till 1260, in which year, through the ambition of rival\nleaders, the seeds of civic dissension were sown, and the republic was\nexposed to dangers from without.  It was at this time that the people\nof Cascia determined to put themselves under the authority of Alexander\nIV., who then occupied the Papal chair.  They were induced to this\naction by what they saw of the peaceful nature of the Papal government,\nand because they adhered to the Guelph party, which was favourable to\nthe Holy See.  Alexander IV. was the great Pontiff who, uniting the\ngreatest virtues to the highest mental attainments, contrived during\nthe height of the sanguinary quarrels between Guelphs and Ghibellines,\nwhich had for twenty years torn and divided Italy, to stamp out\nincendiarism, to crush tyranny, and cause peace and happiness to\nflourish again in the distracted peninsula.  Cascia had no reason to\nregret the changed state of affairs, for the monarchical system which\nits submission to the Pope introduced by no means destroyed its\nrepublican form of government.  Hence it retained the right of\nregulating its own affairs by its own laws; hence its mayor, elected\nevery six months, retained his authority; hence it retained those\nchiefs of the people, at first called 'Ateposti,' then 'Gonfalonieri,'\nand finally 'Consuls.'  To these latter a troop of soldiers, called the\npeople's jury, was subject, who had the duty not only of defending the\npeople, but of acting on the offensive when necessary.  The court of\njustice, the guards and robes of the consuls, the stately retinue of\nthe mayor, the fortifications with their garrisons, the number of\nsubject towns and villages--of which more than forty recognise Cascia\nas their chief at present, without speaking of the many which the\nravages of time have destroyed--the right of peace and war left, at\nleast in part, to the brave people of Cascia--these and other memories\nof the past, which even now may be seen in the consular registers,\nconstitute a proof of the liberty which Cascia enjoyed under the Popes\nand of the fame which it acquired.\n\nBut at the beginning of the disastrous and prolonged schism of the\nanti-Popes, Cascia unfurled the standard of rebellion, either through a\ndesire of complete independence, or, as some say, on account of the\ninsolent conduct of the Papal soldiers, and for a period of about 131\nyears--till the year 1517--it remained under a sort of mixed\ngovernment.  This interval of complete independence was filled up by an\nuninterrupted series of wars waged with its neighbours of Norcia, of\nLeonessa, of Monreale, of Aquila, or of Cerreto.  But after the first\noutburst of enthusiasm for complete independence, and in the midst of\nquarrels with its neighbours, the republic of Cascia took occasion to\nshow its pristine reverence and love for the See of Rome.  A clear\nproof of the correspondence between Cascia and the Papal See is the\nformal announcement, made by the Cardinals met together in council at\nConstance, to the commune of Cascia, of the election of Pope Martin V.\nto the Pontifical throne.  The prompt assistance given by the people of\nCascia to Eugene IV., successor to Martin V., against Corrado Trinci,\nGovernor of Foligno, who tried to make himself lord and master of that\ncity, is another proof of their loyalty to the Holy See.  When the wise\nand great-minded Leo X. ascended the Papal throne he brought back\nCascia to its obedience to the Holy See by a brief dated 1517.  All its\nancient privileges and distinctions were confirmed by him, and a\nCardinal was appointed to govern the city; for Cascia still continued\nto have the title 'city,' as it had till 1600 at least.  Some speak of\nmoney coined there, of its coats of arms, of printing done there, of\nits prosperity and commerce, of the cultivation of the fine arts; but\nthe cultivation of souls is what chiefly adorns it.\n\nAnd, in the first place, if nobility presupposes the talents or merits\nof ancestors either in field or court, what must we say of Cascia,\nwhich reckoned in its environs 200 famous families, which are extinct\nonly within the last two centuries, without speaking of others that\nbetook themselves elsewhere, or of the ancient patrician families that\nstill dwell in the homes of their ancestors?\n\nThere is no need to go back to remote antiquity to catch a glimpse of\nthe great men who had their origin in Cascia in the splendour of its\ngreatest glories.  The great ones born there, even in the latest years\nof its decadence, are a proof of what it produced in the past, and are\nsufficient to renew the honours it merited in its beginnings.\n\nThe Cardinals, the Bishops, the Prelates, the names distinguished in\nscience and in arms of the Poli, Frenfanelli, Benenati, Cruciani,\nSquarcipani, Colangeli, Negroni, Graziani, Franceschini, Leonetti,\nGiudici, Elemosina, Girolami, Gregorietti, and of other illustrious\nfamilies, would supply ample material to whosoever would wish to\npronounce the praises of Cascia.  We, who have for our study a nun and\na saint, shall content ourselves with going into the shadow of the\ncloister and of the sanctuary.  We find Andrew of Cascia, a Franciscan\nwho lived at the same time as St. Rita, who had the happiness of\nbringing the Gospel to the Turks at Fez, where he suffered martyrdom\nafter converting many to Christ and working many miracles.  The glory\nof this humble friar outshines the glory which the honours of the world\ncan give.  Blessed Pace, a Minor Conventual, born in Cascia, great in\nvirtue and by the miracles he worked, raised himself above every\nearthly greatness.\n\nBut what must have most drawn the soul of our St. Rita to desire from\nher childhood the life of the cloister, and to follow it in her mature\nyears, were the singular models of sanctity which the Augustinian\ninstitute in Cascia could furnish.  The memory of the saintly heroes,\nfollowers of the great Augustine, who dwelt in the woods about Cascia,\nwas to her the memory of a recent event.  The first of these recluses\nis Blessed John, who from being lord of three towns shut himself in the\nValley of Attino, not far from Cascia, in order to lead a life hidden\nin God in the deepest contemplation.  Then comes Blessed Ugolino, who\nimitated the example of Blessed John in renouncing the pleasant things\nof this world to engage himself entirely with heavenly things in the\nhermitage of St. Anatolia, in the territory of Cascia, where, living in\nmisery, he prepared for himself a way to a high degree of glory in\nheaven.  The third is Blessed Simon Fidati, whom the shades of the\nhermitage could not hide from the world.  For the books on the ascetic\nlife which this very learned hermit of St. Augustine wrote in these\nsolitudes began to make him known; then his unwearying and fruitful\npreaching through the chief cities of Italy, especially Florence and\nSiena; the conversions of which he was the instrument; the number of\nenemies he reconciled; his spirit of prophecy; his unconquerable\ncharity on most difficult occasions; the foundation of two monasteries\nin the city of Florence; the other works written by him, whence he\ndeserved to be reckoned the brightest ornament of the Augustinian Order\nat that time, both by his eloquence and profound learning, more infused\nthan acquired, as well as for the piety and fervour which animated him\nin writing--these and many other of his merits made him glorious in\nthis world, and still more glorious in heaven.\n\nContemporary with Blessed Simon were many other remarkable men of the\nsame Order, and born in the same place, as Fr. Bartolo, Vicar of the\nLateran Basilica, who enriched his convent of Cascia with more than 600\nrelics; the Venerable Andrew, noble standard-bearer of the Gospel in\nTurkey; another Venerable Andrew, of the Capozi family, rendered famous\nhis country, his name, and the Augustinian Order by his fruitful\npreaching and his learning.  Fr. Nicholas, of the noble family of the\nSaracini of Cascia, was also a contemporary of St. Rita.  After leaving\nthe pomp of the world to follow Jesus Christ in poverty and\nhumiliation, he was raised through all the ranks of the monastic\nhierarchy till he was elected and re-elected General of his Order, and\nthen promoted by Pope John XXIII. to the episcopal See of Macerata and\nRecanati, where he died in the odour of sanctity in the arms of the\npeople whom he had reformed and whom he loved.  In those times, too,\nStephen of Castel San Giorgio, in the district of Cascia, by his\nvirtues and talents, obtained the highest honours in his Order, and\nbecame Procurator-General.  We might mention the names of many other\nfamous men of the convent and city of Cascia, either contemporary with\nSt. Rita or nearly so, as Angelus and Louis of Cascia, Cherubinus\nLavosi (Bishop of Telesia), Paoletti, Squarcipani, Amici, three of the\nSimonetti family--all either theologians of some eminence or famous\npreachers, or remarkable for their writings; but the notice of these\nand of others, however praiseworthy for virtue or honourable to their\nnative city of Cascia, might seem beside our purpose and be tedious to\nthose who wish to read the life of St. Rita.  At all events, it may be\ndeduced from what we have written that Cascia was not without honour in\nits history and in its inhabitants.\n\nStill, what is Cascia in the sight of God?  What is even Jerusalem\nbefore Him and in the light of His inscrutable judgment?  Human\ngreatness, which dazzles our eyes, disappears in the glance of God, and\nis lost in its own nothingness.  There is no distinction of persons\nwith Him, nor is there distinction of places.  The little town of\nNazareth, out of which, in the common very poor opinion of it, it\nseemed nothing good could come, was, in the Divine councils,\npreordained to be the fatherland of the Saviour of the world; and the\nstill meaner town of Bethlehem--even a stable in Bethlehem--was chosen\nas His place of birth.  Thus it often happens that God chooses the weak\nthings, the lowly, the despicable, the things of naught to confound the\ngoodly things and the strong, and to work great designs, in order that\nthe creature may not have whence to vaunt himself before his Creator.\nSuch was the case exactly with that humble spot Rocca Porena, which was\ndestined to be the birthplace of St. Rita.\n\nTo give some idea of it, let us say it is two miles and a half from\nCascia towards the west, where it is closed in, not to say buried.  An\noverhanging mountain crushes it in on all sides and dominates it, and\nwith difficulty gives access to it from the east by two narrow roads,\none on either side of a precipitous rock.  The river which flows to the\nbase of this rock, famous in the life of the saint, does not approach\nthe small piece of level ground which, together with the village, forms\nthe bottom of a deep basin.  The sun is tardy there in rising, and sets\nearly, leaving the barren plain to its languor and sadness.  One would\nsay that a place so isolated and confined, where neither the beauty of\nnature nor of art appears, and where the sky is almost the only thing\nin view, was created for contemplation and to be the home of innocence.\nThe two houses of St. Rita are still to be seen, almost at opposite\nends of the village, the one in which she was born and lived until her\nmarriage in that part called the Borghetto, and the other where she\nlived a wife, and which is now turned into a little chapel in her\nhonour, in the place called the Piazza.  The saint's garden, now grown\nwild, is also shown to the pious traveller.  Besides these there does\nnot seem to be anything worthy of mention.  We may therefore infer that\nas Bethlehem was styled the least amongst the cities of Judea, so,\nperhaps, is Rocca Porena the least amongst the towns of Cascia--the\nleast, indeed, as a place, but memorable by reason of the favour shown\nit, which exalts it far above the others, since it has given to us that\ngreat saint who, by her singular example of innocence and virtue, is\nbecome the guide and model in the way of perfection to virgins, to\nmarried women, to widows, and to those living in the cloisters, in such\na manner as Bethlehem--if we may lawfully make a comparison between the\noriginal and a faint copy--was exalted by the birth of Jesus Christ,\nwhere, as Blessed Simon of Cascia says, He made Himself the mystical\nand life-giving bread for our common nourishment and comfort on the way\nwhich leads to heaven.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nRITA'S PARENTS\n\nThe fortunate parents of Rita were Antonio Mancini, of Rocca Porena and\nAmata Ferri, who is believed to be from a village called Fogliano.\nAntonio was not noble, nor had he a title, but we may apply to him the\npraise which the Holy Spirit gives to Noah--that he was a just man and\nperfect in his times, and he walked with God.  The Gracchi, the\nScipios, the C\u00e6sars among the number of their family honours cannot\nfind a title greater or even equal to this.\n\nEvery other superiority is vanity, and if there be glory from other\ntitles, it is the glory of another, which cannot pass to the posterity\nof those who merited it.  Justice alone makes that real nobility which\nSt. Augustine and other holy fathers call nobility according to the\nheart of God.  And although even this cannot be passed on to\ndescendants, as it did not pass from Noah to his son Cham, whom he\ncursed, yet it is not unusual for God to recall the justice of parents,\nnot only for a model, but to give a certain extrinsic glory to their\ndescendants.  Hence, when the Holy Spirit wished to record the praises\nof St. John the Baptist, He wished also for his honour that we should\nremember that his parents were both 'just before God, walking in all\nthe commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame.'  So we\ncan also say of Antonio and Amata, of whom was born St. Rita, who had a\nspecial devotion to St. John.  They were not of noble blood, but they\nwere noble in their works; they were not rich in temporal goods, but\nthey were rich in the true treasures of Divine grace, which do not pass\nfrom those who possess them.  They enjoyed the esteem of all who knew\nthem, an esteem more precious than that which flattery offers to the\nrich and great of this world.  Their fortune constituted that\nmediocrity which the wise man sought from God in order that abundance\nmight not tempt him to forget his Creator, nor poverty to give himself\na prey to any vice.  The industrious and honourable labour, and the\ninnocent pastoral life which in their time did not degrade the\nPatriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, did not make the Mancini family\nless worthy of honour.  Rather from the fruits of their labour did they\nacquire the means of exercising a beneficent liberality towards the\npoor of Jesus Christ, whom they cherished with an ardent charity.\nWhether the fruits of their fields were abundant or scarce, these two\nhappy ones, husband and wife, lived contented in their frugality,\nalways giving thanks to the Giver of every good gift, and placing\nthemselves entirely in conformity with the most just and providential\ndispositions of heaven.  Perfect concord, which was their dearest\nvirtue, since in it is the fulness of the law, always reigned in their\nhome.  And hence when they heard of divisions amongst others, which\nwere only too frequent in that age and country, they were speedily\npresent with them, and with their insinuating manners and holy zeal\nthey insisted in their charitable offices till peace was restored.\nThey were, on this account, commonly called the 'peacemakers of Jesus\nChrist.'\n\nThey corrected the erring according to the rules of the Gospel; they\ninterceded for them with so fervent prayers, with so great concern, and\nwith so happy results, that, like Moses, they appeared to be\nconstituted mediators between the people and God.  They steadily hated\nvice, and practised every virtue.  The book from which they learned and\ncherished sentiments so virtuous was none other than the Passion of the\nRedeemer.  It furnished them with inexhaustible matter for their\nmeditations, for their liveliest compassion, and for that remarkable\npiety which, from her cradle, they instilled into the heart of Rita,\nand which they left her as a heritage.  In a word, it may with reason\nbe said of them what was said of the parents of St. John the\nBaptist--that they were both just to the eyes of God, walking without\nstain in the exact observance of the law.  This was their nobility,\nthis was their wealth, which it pleased God to pass to their daughter\nand to multiply in her in a singular way.  Thus we may say, as Blessed\nSimon of Cascia writes, that the parents' goodness instilled the best\ndispositions even before her birth into her who was to be born from\nthem, as the goodness of Zachary and Elizabeth went to exalt the holy\nprecursor St. John.\n\nThus these two holy souls, husband and wife, lived a long series of\nyears in these exercises of virtue and piety, without, however, seeing\nany fruit of their chaste union.  God so disposed it that the desires\nof their youthful years should be vain, that they should labour to\ndetach their minds still more from mortal things, and in order that the\nproofs of an extraordinary work of His providence should one day shine\nthe brighter.  Meanwhile, their desire of offspring, with which nature\ninnocently inspired them, had not only grown cold with advancing years,\nbut was quite extinct; no other care should remain with them now than\nthat of ascending to the eternal heritage of the heavenly Father,\ninstead of descending to the care of children and transmitting their\ntemporal possessions to their posterity on earth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nRITA'S WONDERFUL CONCEPTION\n\nThat God, who is wonderful in His saints, and who, to use a sacred\nexpression, seems at times to play sport with the world, and especially\nwith those creatures that form His delight, wished in the end, and at a\ntime when in the natural order offspring could least be expected from\nthese old and barren consorts, to grant them in a prodigious manner the\nfulfilment of their ancient desires--a fulfilment the more acceptable\nas more unforeseen, and the happier and more certain inasmuch as it was\nmarked and sealed with the seal of the Omnipotent.  So great and so\nremarkable graces can foreshadow only great and remarkable sanctity.\n\nIsaac was meant to be the type of Jesus Christ sacrificed for the human\nrace; he was intended to be a figure of the propagation of the\nfaithful; he should be great in the order of grace.  Still, he was born\nout of the order of nature, of parents also barren by reason of their\nage.  He who was to prepare the way for the impending appearance of the\nRedeemer, and who was to be more than a prophet and the greatest\namongst the saints, he also was miraculously born of parents aged and\nbarren; not to speak of other distinguished personages, both of the Old\nand New Testaments, who in various ways were born in a supernatural\nmanner to exalt the stupendous works of omnipotence and of grace.  Not\notherwise did the Lord, who in His lofty designs intended great things\nfor our heroine, dispose that her conception should be most remarkable\nand above the order of nature.\n\nAmata became conscious of the wonderful event, and, full of amazement,\nshe dared not credit the evidence of it.  In such a state she felt her\nheart agitated, now by fears that she was deceived, again by hope of\nthe contrary; at one time by shame at so unusual an occurrence at such\nan age as hers, at another her feelings of wonder overwhelmed her; and\nagain she experienced renewed struggles of fresh fears, emotions, and\npassions.  But, as is the way with the just, the troubled woman had\nrecourse to prayer to the Father of light, to the God of consolation,\nand whilst she persevered in her humble, fervent, and constant prayers,\nthere appeared to her an angel, a bearer of certainty, of peace, and of\nhappy tidings, as an angel appeared to Abraham and Sara while they were\nemployed in the charitable exercise of hospitality, and to Zachary\namidst his prayers and offerings of incense.  However joyful and\nconsoling in itself was this angelic apparition, it did not fail to\ncause in her heart feelings of perturbation.  Daniel and the other\nprophets had a like sensation in similar circumstances; Zachary had the\nsame feelings, and so had the most holy Mother of God herself.  The\nreason is, as Blessed Simon of Cascia wisely observes, that humanity is\nnaturally disturbed and stricken with fear at the sudden sight of\nthings extraordinary or greater than itself.  But, as the same blessed\nwriter adds, since those heavenly spirits, when they are sent for our\nrelief, are accustomed to comfort the timid, thus, as the archangel\ntold the father of the future Precursor not to fear, and by the\nannouncement of his birth in the near future calmed his heart with\nefficacious words, so did another ambassador from heaven bring the same\nsecurity and joy to the troubled mind of Rita's mother, and assure her\nthat she should bring forth a child; and that nothing should be wanting\nto the fulness of her consolation, he made known to her in brief the\neminent virtues and glory of the daughter that was to be born to her,\nas the sanctity of the Baptist was likewise foretold to Zachary.\n\nThe miraculous pledge of grace which Antonio's happy wife bore already\nin her womb and her lively faith prevented her from smiling at\nannouncements so wonderful; unlike Abraham's wife, who smiled at a not\ndissimilar announcement.  Nor did she sin through incredulity, as did\nElizabeth's husband, who was punished for his sin, but forewarned by\nfact, and full of that faith which teaches that God can raise up\nchildren to Abraham even from the very stones, she instantly believed\nin the words of the angel.  The angelic vision disappeared, and Amata,\nconsidering her own unworthiness, was seized with fresh wonder and\nprofound humility.  Thinking at the same time on the signal favour, she\nretired, with great contentment and singular gratitude and love towards\nthe Divine goodness, to pour out the fulness of her pure and fervent\naffection at the feet of her most beneficent God.  It is easy to think\nwhat a new stimulus to piety in herself and her virtuous husband was\nthis great grace.  Thus they remained happy in their virtue and secure\nin the hands of Divine providence, joyously awaiting the happy day of\nRita's extolled birth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nRITA'S BIRTH\n\nNow that we are about to describe Rita's birth, it will not be out of\nplace to cast a passing glance at the unhappy state of those times, in\norder to see things more clearly as we progress with our history, and\nin order that the providence of God and His grace may more clearly be\ndiscerned to His honour and glory.  The memories are still fresh in our\nminds, or, rather, the wounds which the avenging sword of the God of\narmies inflicted on us.  There is not a moment in which we do not\nrecall with horror the mournful losses inflicted by arms on property,\ncommerce, arts, study, families, States, good order, morals, on\nreligion and the Church.  But however true and just our regrets may be,\nit is a fact that Italy was much more harassed and afflicted at the\nperiod about the birth of Rita.  To read of the extortions of the\nVisconti through the wide extent of their dominions in Lombardy, the\ncruelty exercised by them on the pretext of punishing treason, their\nunbridled lust, and their most unworthy harassing of the clergy,\nexcites our horror.  At the other extremity of Italy, in the kingdom of\nNaples, a territory of equal importance, wrongs and scandals of every\ndescription, and the most deplorable calamities, caused by the parties\nof the Dukes of Anjou and Surazzo, who laid claim to the kingdom,\nspread themselves and took root as the civil war that followed on the\ndeath of King Robert became more widespread.  The different other\nStates into which Italy was then divided were not anything better.  For\nthe luxury of these little Courts which tried to rival the great ones\nto the grave oppression of the people, their despotism, their rivalry\nand wars, their unbridled ambition to command which multiplied the\ndomestic treasons and assassinations of brothers by brothers, of\nrelatives by relatives (if we except the houses of Savoy, Monferrato,\nSaluzzo, and Este)--these and the other dominant vices and scandals\nserved only to increase misery and sorrow.  The cities of the Papal\nStates were also, for the most part, groaning under the yoke of\nrebels--bloody, inexorable, lewd tyrants--and especially before Gregory\nIX. re-established his throne in Rome after his return from Avignon.\nAnd, as if these Italian tyrants were not sufficient to cause public\nmisery, hordes of devastating soldiers issued from Germany, Hungary,\nand England to complete the confusion.  Warner, Muriale, Sando,\nAnchino, Augustus, and others--all captains of the dissolute soldiers\nof fortune--were the stubborn arbiters of Italian affairs from the\nmiddle of the fourteenth century till the time of Charles V., although\nthey were not owners of even a perch of land.  These gave their\nservices in the perpetual wars to whoever paid them best, and went\nabout pillaging, imposing tribute and subsidies--and woe to him who was\nslow in satisfying their demands!--laying waste fields, besieging\ntowns, and universally exercising their pitiless power.  Hence, as the\npeople model themselves after the manners of kings and nobles, it is\neasy to divine the general state of morals in the midst of such\ndepravity.  Let us draw a veil over that picture, the sight of which\nwould move to horror humanity, religion, and especially modesty.\n\nLet it suffice to say that so deeply rooted was this universal\ndepravity that not even the pestilence, that so evident sign of the\nanger of heaven, which in the middle of that century carried off more\nthan half the inhabitants of Italy, was able to check it.  And that\nwhich the prophet Isaias seems to have foreseen in his time, but in\nanother sense, was fulfilled here too: such as the people is, so shall\nthe priest be--so strong was the influence of the bad example and want\nof discipline introduced into Italy by the abandoning of their\nApostolic See in Rome by the Popes.  The prevailing depravity\nafterwards opened the way to still greater evils.\n\nFor the zeal with which Urban VI., successor of Gregory XI., sought to\nremedy the evils which afflicted the Church was intolerable to some,\nand hence followed the election of an anti-Pope, which gave rise to\nthat terrible schism which burst forth a little before the birth of\nRita, and ended only a short time before her death.\n\nWho can recall without tears the separations between friends, princes\ntaking opposing sides, the spiritual and temporal arms put in\nantagonism, the neglect of the canons, the numberless scandals and\nlosses of the Church, which would at that time have been threatened\nwith absolute ruin, but that the gates of hell can never prevail\nagainst the unshakable edifice founded on the rock of Peter, which can\nnever fail?  The Church was at that time, moreover, filled with sorrow\nby the heresies of the Beguins, the Flagellants, the Adamites, the\nWaldensians, the Wickliffites, and others, and by the rapid successes\nof Amurath I., who, to the loss of the Christian name, took possession\nof Thessaly and Macedonia about the time of Rita's birth.  Neither in\nthe Eastern nor in the Western Church was there an Emperor either\nfitted to oppose a bulwark against the inrush of such evils or disposed\nto oppose them.  John Paleologus in the East had lost heart through his\nfrequent defeats, and was leagued against the powers of Christendom;\nand in the West, Wenceslaus, given to the wine-cup and to luxury, was\nbecome good for nothing.\n\nThe republics of the time, amongst which was Cascia, were not much more\nfortunate than the kingdoms.  Genoa and Venice, which only a short time\nprevious might have been compared in their rivalry to Rome and Carthage\nin the ancient world, had now both become exhausted of all their\nstrength through a long series of stubborn wars undertaken against one\nanother, and although they were now mutually at peace and also with the\nother Powers, through the intervention of the Duke of Savoy, they were\nunable to show any opposition to the common enemy of Christendom.  Nor\ndid the avarice and ambition of these States fail to bring in their\ntrain a fruitful crop of all other vices.  Florence, too, although\nhappy in the cultivation of the fine arts, was infected with the\ngeneral depravity.  The city was torn by faction, and weakened by those\nother vices against which Blessed Simon of Cascia had so strenuously\npreached a few years earlier.  And although these exhortations brought\nabout a reform, it was but half-hearted and short-lived.  Vicious\npractices increased in the city, and open rebellion against the Holy\nSee was their eventual outcome.  Of Cascia itself we read that in 1380\nthe Guelphs and the Ghibellines committed horrible atrocities\nthroughout the city and its dependent territory.  And although the\nopposing factions patched up a peace between them in that year, it was\nof no long duration, since, as we have said in the first chapter, the\npeople of Cascia rebelled against the Holy See during the first years\nof the schism of the anti-Popes, just after the birth of Rita.  Murder\nand robbery, pillage and incendiarism followed in the wake of\nrebellion, and brought ruin to many families in Cascia and destruction\nupon her religious places.  A war soon broke out between Cascia and\nLeonessa, which lasted for twelve months, and would have continued much\nlonger but for the friendly intervention of the Trinci of Foligno,\nthrough whose efforts peace was made.  Such was the wretched condition\nof affairs in Italy at that time.\n\nIt is truly wonderful, as St. John Chrysostom says of a somewhat\nsimilar case, how so fair a rose as St. Rita was could have bloomed\namid so many thorns.  Yet such was the disposition of Divine\nprovidence, which decreed that where sin superabounded grace should\nabound in that chosen soul who, from the miraculous events that\npreceded her birth and her innocence, which she preserved intact,\nseemed almost to have been sanctified in her mother's womb.  Rita,\nthen, was born in the village of Rocca Porena in the year 1381, during\nthe pontificate of Urban.  Her parents were Antonio Mancini and Amata\nFerri, the child of whose old age she was, the first and only fruit of\ntheir chaste love, or, rather, of their remarkable virtue.  The pure\njoy which filled Amata's heart at the sight of the infant, which heaven\nitself had extolled, must have made her forget those trials which every\nmother has experienced since our first mother Eve committed original\nsin.  Antonio, too, as he gazed tenderly on the predestined child, must\nhave exulted in the Lord, and must, like Simeon of old, have felt\nhimself ready to die content; he, too, could now sing a hymn of\nthanksgiving to God, who had granted him the happiness of seeing the\nglory of his family, of his country, and of the new house of Israel.\nThe general joy and universal congratulation of relatives and\nneighbours added to the happiness of the pious couple, whose virtue and\ncharity had made them esteemed by all.  Thus did the relatives and\nneighbours of the holy Elizabeth rejoice at the equally wonderful birth\nof St. John the Baptist, for the Lord desired to make known the mercy\nhe had shown in the first appearance of the Precursor.  'All who love\ngoodness,' says Simon of Cascia, 'participate in the joy that is\noccasioned by the birth of one destined to live for the common good.'\nThose who rejoice in grace, and in the sight of the fruits of justice,\nmust let their sentiments be evident to all, as in the present case, in\nwhich a pious mother brought forth a saintly child.  It is part of the\nspiritual life to be pleased at the prosperity of others, and to\nrejoice with those especially who have been marked by the favour of the\nOmnipotent God.\n\nMeanwhile, the parents of the newly-born infant, in the midst of these\nrejoicings, were pondering on what name they should call her, and again\nthat God, who had by an angel announced her birth, again in a vision of\nthe night made them know that Rita was to be her name.  It is a rare\nprivilege of some saints, remarks St. Ambrose, to deserve to get their\nnames from God Himself.  Thus Jacob was named Israel by the Lord, thus\nwas the Baptist named John by the angel, thus the Eternal Father called\nthe Word made flesh by the name Jesus before He was born, and thus did\nshe who was to imitate the virtues of the Baptist and be a faithful\nfollower of Jesus Christ get her name from heaven.  The name Rita, as\nbeing quite an unusual name, must have been meant to signify the\nsanctity that was to mark the life of the child so designated, and if\nwe were to give credence to the opinion of the Augustinian author\nDidacus, Rita signifies virtue and grace.\n\nBut this name foreshadowed only what Rita was to be, not what she was.\nFor although she could be considered from then as a child of God in the\norder of predestination, yet according to the order of nature, and\naccording to her actual state, she was, owing to original sin, a child\nof wrath; and to become an adopted child of God she needed to be\ncleansed from the hereditary stain of original sin in the sanctifying\nwaters of the Redeemer.  Her baptism took place on the fourth day after\nher birth, although we may believe her pious parents wished her to be\nbaptized with all possible speed, and from the delay we may conclude\nthat the time of her birth must have been in the winter season.  There\nwas no baptismal font at that time in Rocco Porena, and the child had\ntherefore to be taken to the collegiate church of St. Mary in Cascia,\nwhere that grace which was to be the beginning and the seal of her\nsanctification awaited her.  There Rita put off the garb of sin, and\ncame forth from the salutary bath of baptism clothed in the garment of\ninnocence and enriched with the gifts of the Holy Ghost, who from the\nmoment chose her to be His spouse.  Thus did the regenerated babe\nreturn to her mother's bosom and the joyful embraces of her parents,\nfairer to the eyes of faith than her beauty made her to the eyes of men.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE WHITE BEES OF ST. RITA\n\nWhen the godmother and her attendants returned from Cascia after the\nbaptism, a feast was prepared for them and the relatives of the happy\nparents, to celebrate in a manner becoming their humble position the\ndouble birth of Rita in the order of nature and of grace.  Meanwhile,\nthe child had closed her eyes in a tranquil slumber.  When the next day\ndawned, the fifth day of her existence, a swarm of bees, all of the\nfairest white colour, and such as were never before seen, made their\nappearance.  They flew a-buzzing about the cradle of the child, and\nafter alighting for a moment on her angelic face were seen to go in and\ncome out of her slightly open mouth in a sort of regular order, as if\nto take from her lips the honey of Paradise.  What feelings of wonder\nand awe must have been awakened in the heart of Amata and those who\nwere present by so marvellous an occurrence!\n\nThe Gospel tells us that fear came upon all the neighbours of Elizabeth\nand Zachary as they considered the miraculous events that marked the\nbirth of the Baptist, and that they noised abroad all these things that\nforetold his future extraordinary sanctity.  In like manner similar the\nwonderful signs that were given at Rita's birth, for Divine providence\nso disposed it in order that honour should be rendered to her by those\nwhose attention had been attracted by these extraordinary happenings,\nand that those who came in contact with her should be induced to order\ntheir own lives more exactly by following the salutary example she was\nto give.  This incident of the appearance of the white bees in the\ncradle of our saint is the one which the painters and poets who have\nillustrated her life have vied most with one another in depicting.  To\navoid having to return again to the subject of the bees, which have\never been mentioned in connection with the life of St. Rita, we will\nhere describe what seems to be a confirmation and perpetuation of the\nwonderful occurrence we have just related.  Going from Rocca Porena to\nCascia, and entering the convent where our saint resided, there, in an\nold wall opposite the convent gate, at a point midway between the cell\nwhich Rita inhabited and the spot in which her body was laid to rest,\nwe are met with a sight that cannot fail to move us to admiration.  For\nthere, even to the present day, the bees, commonly called St. Rita's\nbees, have their nest.  They are called St. Rita's, for they have been\nthere since her time, and have come there, we may believe, owing to\nher, and, as it were, to do her honour.  There is only a small number\nof them--some twelve or fifteen--and everything connected with them is\nextraordinary and wonderful.  In the first place, as we have hinted\nabove, the species to which these bees belong has never, as far as we\nare aware, been determined.  They live each one to itself in a hole\nwhich it has dug in the wall, and as often as these holes have been\nstopped up in the process of plastering the wall they have again\nexcavated them.  They spin a sort of white substance, with which they\nstop the entrance to their retreat, as if to hide themselves from view\nduring their long retirement and fast of eleven months.  They appear\nonly on those days dedicated to the memory of our Lord's Passion, and,\nbe it noted, these are mostly movable feasts; and they betake\nthemselves to retirement about the time of the death of St. Rita, who\nwas devoted, as we shall see, to meditation on the Passion of our Lord.\nFor four centuries they have been found in the same place, without ever\nhaving changed their place of abode.  These ascertained facts seem to\ndeclare clearly enough that it has been the will of the Most High to\nextol through them the merit and the glory of His beloved servant.\nThere is no need to add the many anecdotes of these bees, which are\nrelated in some lives of our saint, and which the nuns of Cascia still\ntell; let one suffice.  Jacobilli says that one of these bees was sent\nto Pope Urban VIII. in a crystal vessel, and that it soon flew back\nagain to the place it occupied in the convent wall.\n\nHere it may be asked whether the bees we have described are the same\nthat appeared when Rita was an infant in swaddling-clothes.  It would\nbe harder to give an answer to this question than to the riddle which\nSampson proposed to his bridesmen.  Sampson's faithless spouse was able\nto wrest his secret from him and then reveal it to her Philistine\nfriends: that the sweetness that came forth out of the strong was the\nhoneycomb that was made in the mouth of the lion that he had torn in\npieces a short time before.  But we can find no answer to our question.\nHowever, those biographers of St. Rita who, without hesitation,\nconfused the bees that appeared at her birth with those in the convent\nmay be excused, as they supposed both to be of the same white colour.\nBut they have been mistaken, for those at present in the convent wall\nare not white--in fact, they do not differ in colour from ordinary\nbees, except that they are of a deep red on the back and they want the\nsting.  But perhaps these writers were not so far from the truth, since\nthere is but the accidental variety of colour that distinguishes the\npresent bees from the white ones that appeared first at Rita's birth.\nAnd who can say but that those once meant by God to symbolize by their\nwhiteness the splendour of Rita's baptismal innocence may not, through\nthe power of God, have taken on their present appearance to signify the\nhumiliation and sadness of the penances she took upon herself?  To\nchange the appearance of a species already existing or to create a new\nspecies is easy to God.  Let the truth of the matter be where it may,\nit is clear that both are marvellous, and worthy to be recorded in the\nhistory of our saint.  But it is time we returned to gaze on her,\nsurrounded in her cradle by those lilies of her incipient sanctity, and\ncrowned with the bright circle of bees that still buzzed around her.\nWe might now inquire whether the bees that entered her innocent mouth\nmade a honeycomb in it, as is believed to have happened to St. Ambrose\nin his infancy, as if to forecast the mellifluous eloquence which he\npoured forth in his manhood in defence of the Church.  Although this\nanecdote as related of St. Rita is not sufficiently well proven,\nneither is it impossible; for when there is question of miraculous\nevents the difficulties of time and place do not form an insurmountable\nobstacle, as they did not in the case of St. Ambrose.  At all events,\nwe have two authors that assert it, and perhaps their opinion is\nsupported by the farther statement that is made--that Rita abstained\nfrom her mother's milk on the day on which the bees appeared, the fifth\nday after her birth.  God may have wished to give her for corporal food\nmystical or symbolical honey of unearthly origin, as He had fed her\nsoul with the food of baptismal grace.  In this way would be more\nclearly signified that which was foreshadowed by the appearance of the\nbees, the insinuating sweetness in word and manner which was afterwards\nthe cause of the conversion of many sinners, which ever brought\nconsolation to the afflicted, and spiritual profit to all who had the\ngood fortune to converse with her.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nRITA'S CHILDHOOD\n\nSt. Augustine in his Confessions takes up two chapters in describing\nhis infancy, and he discovers in that period of his life only misery\nand vestiges of sin, but he recalls these evils that spring from our\nsinful origin only to extol the triumphs which Divine grace obtained in\nhis mature years.  The time of infancy is, however, one in which, since\nthere can be no acts of reflection, nor exercise of will, there can be\nno demerit or actual sin, nor merit or virtue.  It will not, therefore,\nbe strange if our history passes over the infancy of Rita and proceeds\nto describe her childhood.  From the extraordinary piety that\ndistinguished her parents we can easily surmise what care they took in\ntraining and educating their child to instil into her mind the truths\nof religion.  They had abundant proofs that Rita was especially dear to\nGod, that she was born for heaven, and that Divine grace had marked her\nfor its own.  But they knew also that God, who disposes all things\nwisely, wished them to co-operate in moulding the chosen child to\nvirtue and in establishing her in holiness.  They were well aware that\neven the chiefest vessels of election had for a time kicked against the\ngoads of grace.  Nor were they ignorant what a bulwark of defence is\nraised by education and by the example of parents--a fact which many\nunhappy parents either know not or are careless of, and hence by their\nneglect they become the cause of the eternal ruin of their children.\nIt will not, therefore, be useless to remark the watchfulness, the care\nand anxiety, with which Rita's parents observed all the movements,\nwords, and actions of a child so dear to them, lest she should take a\nstep to the right or to the left of the way that leads to heaven, and\nwhich, with the dawning of reason, she began to discern for herself.\nBut these happy parents had no cause for anxiety during the process of\ninstructing and moulding the character of their child, for she had,\nthrough God's grace, acquired a disposition marked by uncommon\nsubmission and precocious wisdom.  Let it suffice to say that even then\nshe could not bear those pastimes and sports which are proper to that\ntender age, and which are universally regarded as innocent.  She had an\nexample in Tobias, who, although he was the youngest in his tribe,\nshowed himself to be the wisest, and never did anything that was\nchildish.\n\nAnother failing, which is dear not only to children, but to all, and\nespecially to the female sex, the love of fine clothes, was an\nabomination to Rita.  We must not believe that a virtuous mother like\nAmata, especially considering her lowly condition, could allow her\ndaughter to appear in anything savouring of pride or ostentation.  On\nthe other hand, Rita, although scrupulously obedient in other things to\nthe slightest wish of her parents, became uneasy whenever they wished\nher to put on some pretty ornament; she used even to run away and hide\nherself at such times, till she saw that her disinclination provoked a\nsmile.  Thus, satisfied with her humble dress, she took more pains to\nadorn her soul than to improve her appearance by the addition of the\nleast ornament.  To simplicity in dress she joined a sedateness of\nmanner so beyond her years that it attracted universal respect,\nadmiration, and love, and set a salutary example not only to those of\nher own age, but to older people also.  She restrained to a wonderful\ndegree that common tendency of women to curiosity and gossip, and\nhaving her thoughts occupied with higher subjects she avoided all human\nconversation as far as good manners and obedience permitted.  Obedience\nwas the virtue according to which she regulated all her actions.  She\nregarded a beck of her parents as a command of God which she could not\nviolate; and her obedience was all the more willing as it accorded with\nthe impulse of grace which impelled her to the practice of all other\nvirtues.  For obedience, as Blessed Simon of Cascia observes, is the\ngate of the virtues.  Rita's love of retirement and of prayer had\nalready risen to the heroic point.  Whoever wished to see her was\ncertain of finding her either at home or in the neighbouring parish\nchurch, which was her favourite place of prayer, where she spent entire\nhours in meditation and devotion, to the great edification of all.\nAlthough penance is a virtue hardly suitable to so tender an age or to\nsuch perfect innocence, yet Rita began from her earliest years to\nchastise her body by different mortifications, and especially by\nfasting; and to render her abstinence more meritorious and acceptable\nto God she distributed to the poor children of the neighbourhood that\nfood which she denied herself, thus bringing forth fruits of mercy and\ncharity from the root of penance.  This was the only way in which her\nloving good-will and tender compassion could show themselves in action;\npoverty made anything further impossible.  But the Lord, who searches\nthe heart, and delights in men of goodwill, sought nothing more from\nRita then.  But she was unconsciously increasing in charity and in\nmerit as she grew in years, so that she could apply to herself the\nsaying of Job--that mercy came out with him from his mother's womb, and\nfrom his infancy grew up with him.[1]  Not only did her spirit grow, as\nit were, and become strong by the exercise of these beautiful virtues,\nbut her progress in all virtue was extraordinary.\n\n\n[1] Job xxi. 18.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nRITA'S LOVE OF RETIREMENT\n\nSt. John the Baptist experienced a similar strengthening of the spirit,\nas we read in that place in which it is also written that he went into\nthe desert, where he hid himself, as Blessed Simon says, in order to\ngive himself up entirely to prayer, contemplation, and penance.  The\ncomparison between these saints is often a fitting one, for Rita always\nfollows closely in the footsteps of her great model.  It is true that,\naccording to the example of the Psalmist, she walked in the innocence\nof her heart, in the bosom of her virtuous family, for she found\nnothing abroad that could distract her spirit from the affairs of her\nhome, whilst her gravity, modesty, and habitual seclusion opened to her\na wide field for the exercise of her love of prayer.  Yet she was so\nenamoured of heavenly things that she wearied of the things of earth,\nand desired, in a certain sense, to be out of the world; and since this\ncould not be, she regarded with a holy envy the lot of so many\nanchorites and heroines of solitude, who, in deserts and in the depths\nof woods, lived lives more like those of angels than of men.  She had\nbefore her eyes the examples of Blessed Simon, of Blessed Ugolino, of\nBlessed John, and of the other saintly hermits of St Augustine, who had\nonly recently passed to their reward in heaven, or were still living in\nthe neighbourhood of Rocca Porena.  The example of these models of\nholiness increased in her heart her dearest desire to serve her beloved\nJesus amid the silence of the woods and on the mounts of myrrh.  But\nthe love of her aged parents, and obedience, more than any thought of\nher youth and sex, prevented her from fulfilling her generous design.\nThe sacred love with which she was animated made her industrious, and\nsuggested the thought of converting her home into the solitude she\nlonged for.  With the consent of her parents she chose a little room\nseparated from the others, and turned it into an oratory.  Its walls\nshe decorated with pictures of our Lord's Passion, and there she shut\nherself in, as into the midst of all delights.  Her Divine Lover\nawaited her there to speak to her heart, and there, far from the eyes\nof men, in perpetual silence and abstinence, she enjoyed those\nineffable consolations of grace which the profane know not of.  The\nconstant object of her thoughts, of her ecstasies of soul, of the most\nardent love of her heart, was the Passion of her crucified Spouse; and\nin the midst of the tears which accompanied her meditation, whilst her\nheart was filled with Divine compassion, she experienced that true\npeace and happiness of soul which only grace can produce--how we know\nnot--from sorrow.  She felt herself transformed into the Crucified One,\nfor whom alone she now lived--rather, she no longer lived, but Jesus\nChrist lived in her.  In that school of love, through that Divine\nteaching, she came to know more certainly the fallacy of all worldly\nthings; she saw how the world deceives us, and she saw also the charms\nand pomps and pleasures of this life, but she saw them as they really\nare, and could therefore say with the wise man that they are but vanity\nand affliction of spirit.  She therefore resolved to have no part in\nthis deceitful world, and since life in the desert was denied her, she\nresolved to bury herself in a cloister.  But she had not yet reached\nthe age in which to put her design into execution.  Meanwhile the holy\nchild lived in her first place of retirement for a full twelvemonth,\nuntil the obligation of assisting her parents and the duties of charity\nand obedience forced her from the place of her spiritual happiness.\nThis happened probably when she was about eleven years old.  Her\nparents were now beginning to feel the burden of their years, and Rita\nhad perforce to enter upon an active life, and exercise works of mercy\nand justice, without, however, entirely abandoning her practices of\nmeditation.  Her history does not tell us how she performed the\ndomestic duties that fell to her lot, perhaps because, from what we\nknow of her life hitherto, that may more easily be imagined than\ndescribed.  Whilst fulfilling the parts of both sisters of Lazarus, she\ndid not cease to envy John in the desert.  Although the Holy Spirit\nhad, through her prayers, made known to her many things, and although\nshe continued still to be enlightened from above, yet she knew not what\nwas written in the eternal decrees concerning herself, that Providence\nonly put off to a better time the fulfilment of her thirst for solitude\nand for a cloistered life.  Rita was intended to be an example to every\nage and condition; she should therefore live other lives before\nreaching the cloister she panted for.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nRITA'S MARRIAGE\n\nIn the year 1393 Italy, not to say the whole world, was suffering under\nthe evils that proceed from political disturbance, and the state of\nmorals throughout the peninsula was deplorable.  Still, the honour of\nthe Church was upheld by the many saints whose lives then adorned it,\nnot the least of whom was Rita.  Urban VI. was dead, and Boniface IX.\nruled in his place.  But the Holy See had to withstand many a rude\nshock, for the anti-Pope Robert, then near his end, continued to\ndispute the possession of the Apostolic keys, and at his death left to\nhis more impious successor, Pietro di Luna, his sad legacy of obstinate\nschism.  Heresy, fanaticism,--religious and political--and the utmost\ncorruption of morals were not wanting to fill the cup of Italy's woes.\n\nThe weak hands of the cruel and dissolute Wenceslaus still held the\nsceptre of the West, and John Paleologus, who had succeeded his father\nEmmanuel, could only weep over the impending ruin of his falling\nempire, that was shaken in every part by the infidel arms of the Sultan\nBajazet.  In Italy the rivalry of the different States, and, above all,\nthe vaulting ambition of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Lord of Milan, served\nto keep alive disunion, antagonism, and wretchedness.  At this very\ntime the republic of Cascia, which, since its revolt against the Holy\nSee, had hardly enjoyed a moment of peace or prosperity, was in arms\nagainst the Guelphs of Cerreto, and had at the same time to prosecute a\nstubborn war against Aquila.  In these contests the military portion of\nCascia, by their deeds of violence, their robberies, and their\natrocities, trampled on every law of humanity and modesty.  It is true\nthat hostilities came to an end in 1395, when terms of peace were\nagreed on; but warlike Cascia could not remain long at rest, but took\nup arms against Monte Reale in a new war, which lasted till 1397.\n\nWhilst Cascia and the other States we have mentioned were seeking by\niniquitous means to widen the borders of the kingdom of confusion and\nsin, Rita, in Rocca Porena, was meditating only how she could best\nplease God, that, as the Apostle says, she might be holy in body and in\nspirit.  The lurid picture of universal disorder rightly excited in her\nfeelings of horror, and convinced her all the more of the vanity and\ncruelty of the world.\n\nShe saw the deceitful pleasures, the snares and thorns, the inevitable\nevils that show themselves at every step, and the dangers that at every\nmoment threaten the soul with ruin.  On the other hand, she perceived\nthe great advantages that result from separating one's self from the\nworld; she recalled all the spiritual joy and interior consolation she\nexperienced during the time she lived in retirement in her home, and\nshe therefore felt herself more firmly grounded in her determination to\nflee for ever from the tumult of worldlings.  The solitude which formed\nthe object of her desires, and in which she resolved to offer to God\nthe holocaust of her virginity, was the convent of Cascia, where she\nafterwards lived and died, called at that time St. Mary Magdalen's, and\noccupied then, as well as now, by nuns of the Order of St. Augustine.\nThis pious project had been for some time maturing in her mind, and\nalthough she was hardly twelve years of age she determined to carry it\ninto effect without any of those wearisome delays which the grace of\nthe Holy Spirit knows not of, which belong to certain weak and\nhesitating souls that cannot break the world's ties, or those of vain\nfear, when God calls them to a state of perfection.  Although Rita then\nheard the call of her Divine Lover, she did not know the time He had\nfixed for the fulfilling of her wishes, but, overcome by a holy\nimpatience, she resolved to make known to her parents her desire for a\nreligious life.  Who can tell what struggles the voice of nature must\nhave caused in her soul at this crisis, as she thought that she was for\never about to separate herself from the side of her dearly loved and\naged parents?  Even the saints feel the strength of nature, but, like\ngiants, they pass on to triumphs in the kingdom of grace.  Thus Rita\nacted.  She shut her ears to the insinuating voice of flesh and blood,\ninformed her parents of her religious vocation, and humbly and\nfervently begged their leave to obey the voice of God.  When they heard\ntheir daughter express such a wish, Antonio and Amata, pious though\nthey were, did not hide their sorrow and the trouble they felt.  They\nbesought with tears that their only child, the one object of their\ntenderest love, their only prop and consolation, should not abandon\nthem in their old age.  Their tearful pleading, acting on the filial\nlove and obedience which filled Rita's heart, prevailed on her to put\noff for a better time the fulfilment of her noble purpose.  Being so\nfar successful, her parents turned their attention to providing a\nhusband for her, in order both to make sure of retaining her society\nand her assistance that had become necessary to them, and to save their\nfamily from extinction; and they fixed their eyes on a young man\ncalled, according to some, Ferdinand, and to others Paul.  But old eyes\ndo not always see clearly.  The young man whom they selected was\nimpulsive and irascible, with a character formed amid the savage\nsurroundings of that time and place--in a word, he was well fitted to\ntry the patience and virtue of Rita.  He was proposed as a husband to\nthe saintly girl, and all the weight of parental authority, and every\nmotive that human nature could suggest, were adduced to win her\nconsent.  We do not know with what prayers and entreaties the\ndistressed girl opposed the suggestion, but we do know that she showed\nthe repugnance her soul felt.  It was not, however, the disposition of\nher intended husband that made her hate the idea of marriage, for if\nthe knowledge of it were hidden from her parents, it could scarcely be\nknown to a young girl so fond of retirement.  All Rita's aversion and\ncomplaining sprang from the fear of seeing closed to her the road that\nled to the conventual life to which she aspired, and the dread of\nhaving to dwell in the midst of an evil and destroying world, in which\nshe would be plunged into the dangerous cares of married life.  Seeing\nat last that her tears could not bend her parents to her wishes, and\nfeeling somewhat shaken by considerations of filial piety and\nobedience, she had recourse in her hard trial to the Father of light.\nDuring her prayer she became conscious of an inspiration that told her\nto bend her neck to the yoke of matrimony, and thus understood that\nwhat she took to be a suggestion of paternal love, purely human and the\nvoice of flesh and blood, was in reality a disposition of heaven.\nResignation to the Divine will partly restored her peace of mind, and\nthe consent to her marriage which she announced to her parents filled\nthem with satisfaction.  Rita gave her consent through an impulse of\nobedience, and since perfect obedience to the Divine will requires a\nholy blindness, she took no care to inquire about the fortune,\nappearance, or other qualities of her future husband.  Rita was\ntherefore in the first flower of her youth, her beauty, and virtue\nwhen, under the nuptial veil of her modesty, she stood before the altar\nto become a party to that indissoluble contract which Jesus Christ\nraised to the dignity of a Sacrament, and which gives children to the\npeople of God.  The relatives and friends on both sides were resolved\nto celebrate the nuptials with feastings, but the common joy did not\nreach the heart of the pious bride, for that was fixed on nobler\nobjects.  To the hour of her marriage Rita had been an excellent\nexample to all virgins.  In those few years she had given enough\nlessons to show how virginal candour and pure innocence should be\npreserved; she had now to follow another path to become a bright\nexample of virtue to all who live in the married state.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nRITA AS WIFE\n\nThe Apostle's saying, that 'all things work together for good to those\nwho love God,' remains always true.  Rita had passed from the state of\nvirginity to that of matrimony, yet this step towards a lower state was\ndestined to lead her to a higher grade of glory.  Thus St. Monica,\nwhose faithful follower our heroine was ever to be, would not have been\nSt. Augustine's mother by nature, and in the order of grace would not\nhave drawn the erring Patrizio, her husband, to God, would not have so\nwide a field wherein to exercise her patience and fortitude, would not\nhave left all those examples of virtue which her son Augustine admires\nand exalts in his book of 'Confessions,' if Divine Providence had not\nled her by that path which, long after, her daughter Rita followed.\n\nThe ways are diverse and diverse are the gifts, but the Spirit is the\nsame which guides souls in a wonderful manner towards greater good.\nThe way of tribulation was that which the Lord opened to our saint, and\nby the means of matrimony He wished her to pass through fire and\nwater--in other words, through every sort of danger, temptation, and\npersecution, in order to prove and purify her, as gold is purified in\nthe furnace, and thence to receive her into heaven as a most pure\nholocaust.  Hence the God whose wish placed her in the married state so\ndisposed it that she should pass from her original life of filial\nsubmission to that of slavery under a tyrannical husband.  Thus it was\nthat hardly had a few days passed after the marriage than her unworthy\nhusband began to illtreat the innocent Rita with reproaches, abuse,\nthreats, and even blows, of which the only cause was his own brutal\ninclination.  But our gentle heroine had studied in the school of the\nCrucified One; she had already learned how to conquer her passions even\nto the extent of rejoicing in the midst of tribulation, for she was\nconvinced that tribulation is the food of Christian patience, that\npenitence is the great proof of real virtue, and that on the exercise\nof it is based our priceless hope of eternal good that shall not fail\nus.\n\nYet because she was aware that not all who suffer are blessed, but only\nthose who surfer for justice' sake, she took every care and tried every\nmeans to please her husband, whom nothing could satisfy.  She waited on\nhim, tried to discover his wants, sought to interpret his unspoken\nwishes, studied his temper--in a word, she did her utmost never to give\nhim the least cause to complain, at least in everything in which her\nduty as a Christian permitted.  She was well aware that a wife ought to\nregard her husband as a master to whom that obedience and reverential\nfear are due which the Church owes to her head, Christ Jesus.  She not\nonly knew, but practised it 111 a way that astonished all who were\nacquainted with the natural brutality of her husband and her own heroic\nsubmission, meekness, and invincible constancy.  She obeyed his every\nbeck, and undertook no duty without first seeking his approval.  So far\ndid she carry this submission that she did not go out of her house even\nto attend the Divine offices in church without having first obtained\nhis permission.  With all this the contest was a long one between the\nhusband's cruelty and the wife's sweetness of temper, between his\nvicious nature and her virtue, between his pride and her humility, his\nferocity and her meekness, his arrogance and her tractableness, between\nhis power to give pain and her ability to surfer.\n\nBut the victory was gained by Rita's virtues, for her long-suffering at\nlength won her husband's heart, and brought unity and love into their\nhome.  Whenever afterwards Ferdinand felt inclined, as he sometimes\ndid, to have recourse to cutting words or unseemly acts, at the sight\nof her humility and patience, and the memory of her gentle admonitions,\nhe adopted the expedient of going out of the house till his mind\nrecovered its tranquillity.  We read, too, that, completely overcome by\nher sweet gentleness, he one day threw himself at her feet to ask\npardon from her for his faults and to promise to correct them.  To the\nunspeakable consolation of Rita he kept this promise, nor was she slow\nto refer all the praise of this conversion to the Giver of all good\nthings, who alone is Lord of the human heart.  When fraternal\ncorrection is not the outcome of irritation or pride, it is an\ninstrument of Divine grace, and we know that it has no other object\nthan the salvation of him who is corrected when the word and manner\nwhich convey it are marked by moderation and kindness.  Rita therefore\nbrought into action all the graces, natural and supernatural, which she\npossessed, in order to bind closely to her that unquiet heart of her\nhusband, and to draw him to the Lord, and induce him to fulfil his\nChristian obligations.\n\nTwo sons were born to them, the elder of whom was named Gian Giacomo,\nand the other Paolo Maria.  Both of them inherited their father's\nquarrelsome and irascible temperament, and his example did not help to\nimprove them.  We may easily imagine the trouble, the watchfulness, the\nuneasiness, the fear, and anxiety which a devoted Christian mother like\nRita must have experienced in rearing, educating, and, above all, in\nforming the minds of her young children.  The words which she kept\ncontinually repeating in their ears, and which she would have wished to\nimpress indelibly on their hearts, were words of the holy fear of God,\nof piety and devotion.  But not so much with words did the pious mother\nendeavour to instil into them the pure maxims of the Gospel as by the\nexample of her own exalted virtues.  Would that fathers and mothers\nwould learn once for all from the saints, and become convinced of the\nundeniable truth that their children are moulded more by their example\nthan by their words, even when these are not contradicted by their\ndeeds!  Rita, however, in her vigilance spared nothing, neither words\nnor actions, nor advice nor blame, nor threats nor chastisements, to\ntrain these tender plants heavenwards; but their natural and more easy\ntendency was downwards, and this was her greatest cause of sorrow\namongst so many causes, and the worst of all her troubles.  We do not\nmean to say that Gian Giacomo and Paolo were like David's sons Amnon\nand Absolom, yet it is a fact that the children of holy people are\nsometimes self-willed and wicked, however holy their upbringing may\nhave been.  Rita, however, knew what a mother's duty was, and she\ntherefore, in bringing up her children, never allowed her zeal to\nslacken, nor her patience to wear out, nor her watchfulness to grow\nweary.\n\nThe trials were severe enough which our heroine had to undergo from the\nsociety of an irascible husband, whose virtue was none of the most\nsteadfast, but they were redoubled by the evil inclinations she saw\nappear in her children, and their hatred of all good instruction.  The\ncitizens of the heavenly kingdom, whilst they live in this world\namongst the sinful and the wicked, must, as St. Augustine teaches, be\ntossed about by temptations, in order that they may keep themselves in\nthe practice of virtue, and be proved as gold is proved in the\ncrucible.  Tried by such afflictions, Rita seemed to have come to such\na pass that she could do nothing else than, with the prophet, raise her\npure hands to heaven night and day, to seek in God alone some relief in\nher troubles and some defence against the evils of her house.[1] If\never she deemed it necessary to have recourse to prayer, now assuredly\nwas a time that called for redoubled prayer and the greatest fervour.\nShe therefore prayed without ceasing.  Her continued meditations on the\nsufferings of our Lord was a relief in her distress; frequent communion\nbrought comfort to her troubled state, and her particular devotion to\nour Blessed Lady, consoler of the afflicted, to St. John the Baptist,\nSt. Augustine, and St. Nicholas of Tolentine, often brought\nforgetfulness of her woes.  Women of the world enduring the like\nsuffering and trouble would deem themselves dispensed from the practice\nof any other mortification, and in their love of ease, which readily\nflatters them, would find a thousand pretexts to exempt themselves even\nfrom the fasts that are commanded.  But Rita, who was in the world but\nnot of it, far from suspending the acts of penitence she was used to\npractise before her marriage, took refuge in works of greater\nausterity, in abstinence and fastings and in chastising her body.  In\nspite of these acts of mortification, she still had sufficient strength\nand vigour to attend to all the needs of her house and assist the wants\nof her neighbours; she relieved the necessities of the poverty\nstricken, and with her own hands prepared food for them; by the\nbedsides of the sick she was unwearying, and, in a word, made herself\nall things to all men.  When she had to appear abroad, either in the\nperformance of her works of charity or to be present at the Divine\nmysteries in the church, her angelic modesty and the goodness and\ninterior peace which shone in her countenance served to edify all who\nsaw her.  These were her adornments, not the trappings of worldly show,\nwhich from childhood she abhorred, and which were more detestable in\nher eyes now that she had advanced so far on the way of perfection.\nShe carefully avoided all unbecoming neglect in dress, and appeared in\na garb free from everything savouring of vanity, not to say\nindecency--such a dress as would escape the eyes of the curious, and\nwhich, instead of luxuriousness, showed a contempt of the present life,\nand was exactly what necessity and Christian humility required.  In her\nintercourse with others, whilst always well-mannered and agreeable, she\npossessed singular tact in avoiding all conversations which were not of\nGod or of works of corporal or spiritual mercy to her neighbours.  No\none ever heard from her lips any of those complaints against her\nhusband which are so frequent when women meet together.  If ever any of\nher female acquaintances who knew how she was treated by her\nill-tempered husband tried to provoke her to complain by affected pity,\nas grumbling women not unfrequently did, she either turned the\nconversation to another subject or covered her husband's faults with\nthe mantle of charity, and thereby gave a practical example of virtue\nwhich her neighbours might to their advantage imitate.  In brief, St.\nRita was another St. Monica: she was the strong woman of the parables\nof Solomon, and was in all respects the best model for married women.\n\n\n[1] Ps. lxxvi. 2.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nDEATH OF RITA'S HUSBAND AND CHILDREN--RITA AS WIDOW\n\nRita had succeeded, as we have said, in assuaging the cruelty that\nseemed to have been natural to her husband.  The means she employed to\neffect this change were the gentle manner which she naturally\npossessed, and which Divine grace made still more gentle; the good\nadvice she ever gave, her kindness and unwearying patience, her good\nexample, and, above all, her fervent prayers.  But whether it was that\nhis enemies, brooding over old causes of hate, resolved to take revenge\nfor past offences, or that Ferdinand, in a fresh outburst of passion,\nhad exposed himself to new quarrels and new dangers, the fact remains\nthat when he had lived eighteen years with Rita he was barbarously\nmurdered a short distance outside Rocca Porena (the place where the\nunfortunate victim fell is still shown).  Hardly had the report of his\ntragic death reached the ears of his widowed spouse than, despite her\nmagnanimous heart, she paid the tribute of nature in an outburst of\nbitter, scalding tears.  In the depths of her heart the holy woman felt\nthe wounds that had taken from her side the husband she loved.  But the\nthoughts that made her weep were not thoughts of temporal losses, or of\nher sorrow, or of being left alone to provide for her family, or of\nhaving to dwell with undutiful children with no one to support her.\nFar other sadder and more serious considerations were breaking her\nheart.  A little human feeling and a weak grasp of faith are enough to\nfill us with horror at hearing of a violent death.  We may, then,\neasily imagine what grief Rita felt as she considered in the light of\nher lively faith all the evil on the one part and the other that may\nhave preceded and accompanied that homicidal attempt, or as she dwelt\non the uncertainty of pardon or of her husband's penitence, or his\nhaving to appear before his Judge without having received the last\nSacraments.  Nevertheless, that lively faith which made her feel doubly\nthe crushing force of the calamity that had overtaken her soon raised\nher above herself, above death and every human consideration.  She\nraised the eyes of her soul to heaven and remembered, and was sure that\nDivine Providence, whose designs are inscrutable, not only disposes all\nthe good that is done, but permits all the evil which comes from man's\nfree-will.  This thought sufficed to bow her down before the throne of\nthe Divine Majesty, to adore His just judgments, and hence came comfort\nto her bruised heart.  The saints have no need of the barren\nconsolations of the world; they find in religion that comfort which\nreason alone can never give.  Our noble heroine did not for a moment\nhesitate to pardon sincerely from her heart the murderers of her\nunfortunate husband, but, mindful of the example of Jesus Christ, who\nprayed to the Eternal Father for those who crucified Him, and of St.\nStephen, who interceded for those who were stoning him to death, she\ntoo offered fervent supplications to the Divine Mercy for those cruel\nmurderers.\n\nHardly had Rita raised her mind above the stormy sea of her sorrows\nthan a new trouble appeared to afflict her.  She perceived with\nconsternation that her sons, although yet of tender years, were\nplotting vengeance against those who were guilty of their father's\nblood.  The afflicted widow exerted all her force by word and deed to\nexcite in them sentiments of resignation and of forgiveness and of\nChristian charity.  She ceased not to keep before their minds the\neternal maxims, the fear of judgment and of hell, the examples of the\nsaints, and especially the example of our crucified Redeemer, who, in\nthe extremity of His sufferings, interceded for His inhuman\nexecutioners.  She took care, too, immediately to remove out of the\nsight of her sons the bloody garments of her slain husband.  But in\nspite of all her advice and solicitude, the sorrowing mother could not\ntouch her children's vengeful hearts, or, if she did succeed in\nsoftening them, it was but for a moment they abandoned their wicked\nintentions.  Amidst circumstances of such distress, and oppressed by\nher fears, the unhappy widow knew not whither to turn, and on earth she\nfound only subjects of sorrow and vestiges of sin.  She turned her\nweeping eyes once more to heaven, and there again she found the\ngreatest comfort in her sufferings.  Although she was a mother, and had\na mother's affectionate heart, yet because she loved and sought God's\nhonour more than her own flesh and blood, like a noble Christian\nheroine, she supplicated the Lord either to change her children's\nhearts or to take them out of this world before they could accomplish\nthe vengeance they were meditating.  Rita's vows were acceptable to\nheaven, and to her was granted to complete Abraham's sacrifice in a new\nway--for the patriarch's knife was arrested in mid-air, and Isaac was\nsaved; but she saw her two sons fall one after another victims to her\nprayers that pierced the heavens.  Thus we may well hope that the most\nmerciful Lord provided for their eternal salvation during their mortal\nillness, and then took them, lest wickedness should alter their\nunderstanding,[1] and at the same time provided for the mother by\nopening to her a way into a new life far removed from the world and so\nlong the object of her wishes, a life altogether spiritual and by\nanticipation blessed.  The brave woman did not weep, and although at\nthe time of her husband's tragic end she was dissolved in tears through\nfear about the salvation of his soul and the souls of his murderers,\nyet at the deaths of her children she only thanked her God who had\ntaken them away from the dangers of sin and the risk of another more\ndreadful death--that of the soul.\n\nIt is difficult to discover how long Rita had to struggle with her\nvengeful children, or how long she remained in the world after they had\npassed to eternity.  It seems certain, however, that the time she lived\nas a widow was short.  But we know that during that period she placed\nall her confidence in God, and that she was engaged night and day in\nthe practice of most perfect prayer,[2] according to St. Paul's\ninstruction to widows.  She bore the cross with Jesus Christ, and lived\na life of perpetual self-denial.  More than ever she kept her body in\nsubjection by scourgings and continued fasting, and she distributed to\nthe poor that part of her food which her abstinence spared.  She\nrejoiced in performing works of mercy, and was, in a word, all love\ntowards God and her neighbour, and in no way solicitous about herself.\nAmongst other instances of her heroic charity we read that, happening\none day upon a poor man half naked and trembling with cold, she took\none of her own garments and gave it to him, and went on her way\nrejoicing that God had given her the opportunity and the grace to\ndeprive herself of what she herself needed in order to help one of the\npoor of the Lord.  Her dress was of coarse serge, and was a dark blue\nin colour, and during the severity of the winter she added a rough\ncloak.  She always wore sackcloth that she might always be doing\npenance.  In retirement alone she found her consolation and joy; and no\nsooner were her children dead than her old burning desire to enclose\nherself once for all within the cherished shadows of the cloister\nsprang into life again.  We may relate an incident which gave a new\nimpetus to her vocation, as it is told by an ancient writer: Having\ngone one day from Rocca Porena to Cascia, she went into the church of\nthe Augustinian nuns whilst Mass was being said, and there she felt as\nif those words of our Saviour were being imprinted on her mind, 'I am\nthe Way, the Truth, and the Life'--words which then passed into her\nheart to pierce it with the Divine love which spoke to her and invited\nher.\n\nWe may well believe, too, that the worthy examples of other female\nsaints then living or but recently gone to their reward offered new\narguments to urge her not to delay entering on a conventual life.  The\nmemory of St. Bridget of Sweden and Blessed Angela of Foligno was still\nrecent, whilst St. Margaret of Monferrato and St. Frances of Rome were\nthen still living, all of them illustrious women raised up by God, as\nRita was in Cascia, to oppose and bear testimony against the corruption\nof those times, and all of them predestined to become models to the\nvirgins of the cloister after having adorned in the world the three\nstates of virginity, married life and widowhood.  But even without\nthese examples Rita was sufficiently conscious of the interior voice of\nher heavenly Spouse, and she readily prepared to obey it.  Thus Abraham\nhad hardly heard the angel's voice when he arose in the darkness of the\nnight and went to sacrifice his son; the shepherds who were watching\ntheir flocks when they heard the announcement of the Divine Infant's\nbirth ran to offer Him their homage; the Magi, as soon as they saw the\nnew star, did not hesitate to undertake their long journey to adore the\nKing of kings in His swaddling-clothes; the Apostles, at the first call\nof the Redeemer, left their nets and followed Him; the head of the\nApostles, Peter, at a sign from the angel, rose quickly from his broken\nchains; so Rita determined to hide herself without delay in that sacred\nretreat where her Divine Lover was awaiting her.  That retreat, as we\nhave said, was the convent in Cascia of the nuns who follow the rule of\nthe great Augustine, who were called at that time nuns of St. Mary\nMagdalen, from the ancient title of their church, and who were\nremarkable for strict observance.  We have said before that the\nAugustinian Order flourished there not only in the convent of the nuns,\nbut in the wonderful sanctity of the worthy followers of the Blessed\nSimon, Blessed Ugolino, and Blessed John and Simon, all of whom had\ndwelt in the woods of Cascia.  This, too, must have been a strong\nattraction to our saint, and a further inducement to fix her mind\nunchangeably on Cascia.  The memory of the heroic virtues practised by\nSt. Nicholas of Tolentine, her special advocate, was still fresh in the\nminds of men, and the fame of his stupendous miracles had spread\nthroughout the land.  But the principal motive why she sought to wear\nthe habit of St. Augustine was that God in His inscrutable decrees had\ncalled her to that state by the loving invitations of His grace.  The\npious widow approached the nuns, and, throwing herself at their feet,\nin simple words and with all the fervour of her heart expressed her\ndesire to serve God within their walls and in that penitential garb\nthey wore.  But her request was vain; it was not thought convenient to\nreceive a widow in a convent intended for virgins, and it was against\ntheir custom.  Rita took her refusal patiently, but she did not lose\ncourage, and, like Abraham, she hoped against hope.[3]  Some time after\nshe went back again, represented that she had a vocation, renewed her\nprayers and sighs; but she was rejected a second and, again, a third\ntime.  But the more the nuns persisted in refusing her admission, the\nmore did Rita acquire the merit of humility, patience, and unalterable\nconfidence in God.  She attributed her refusal to her own unworthiness,\nand in her self-contempt she more and more conformed herself to her\nmodel, Jesus.  This was the manner of life which Rita led in the world,\nwhere she was a mirror of every virtue to virgins, to the married, and\nto widows.  We shall see how she became an example of sanctity to\nreligious in the cloister.\n\n\n[1] Wisd. of Sol. iv. ii.\n\n[2] 1 Tim. v. 5.\n\n[3] Rom. iv. 18.\n\n\n\nEND OF PART I\n\n\n\n\nPart II\n\nRITA IN THE CLOISTER\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\n  RITA'S MIRACULOUS ENTRY INTO THE CLOISTER\n  AND HER RECEPTION\n\nAll Rita's thoughts and all her affections were centred in heaven, and\nthe reason why she desired to lead a more perfect life in the cloister\nwas thereby to make more certain of attaining the object of her\ndesires.  But the world in that century of wickedness was engaged about\nfar different things; the vortex of worldly hopes and ambitions had\nengulfed almost all the aspirations of men.  In the East, rapine, vice,\nviolence, murder, irreligion, and a long train of irreparable wrongs,\nhad followed quickly upon the victories of Sultan Bajazet and the\ndefeats of the Emperor Emmanuel.  The prolonged war was still being\nwaged in the German Empire between Sigismund and the rebellious\nHussites, who despised human life in their endeavours to spread their\nheresy and profane and overthrow the altar.  The government of the\nChurch, then under Pope John XXIII., was most violently harassed by the\nanti-Pope Pietro di Luna, whose contumacy the Council of Constance\nfailed to break down, as the Council of Pisa had failed before.  Italy\ncontinued to be the laughing-stock of tyrants and of the resuscitated\nfactions of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines.  Of the two Visconti who\ngoverned the Cisalpine province, one was the slave of his vices and the\nother was the prisoner of his rebellious subject Facino Cane, tyrant of\nAlexandria, who was the formidable chief of a marauding band and the\ndespoiler of the province.  The tyrannous usurpations of Ottobono in\nParma, Da Vignate in Lodi, Fondolo in Cremona, and Malatesta in Brescia\nstill continued.  The Romagna and the Marshes enjoyed no higher degree\nof liberty or prosperity under the yoke of despotism.  The factions of\nDurozzo and of Anjou still disputed possession of the kingdom of\nNaples, and the ambitious Ladislaus, with designs on the whole Italian\npeninsula, began to threaten Rome with the fugitive Pontiff.  The\nrepublics of Venice, Genoa, Florence, and Siena were either plotting\nagainst one another or actually at war.  Cascia was the only one of the\nrepublics that had begun to taste the almost forgotten fruits of peace.\nBut neither in Cascia nor elsewhere were good morals to be found; they\nseemed to have barely secured a refuge in the cloisters.  Hence Rita\nwas sighing night and day for the sacred shelter, and although she had\ntill then bloomed as a stainless lily among thorns, yet she did not\nconsider that she could live secure in the danger-laden atmosphere that\nsurrounded her.  But how could she aspire to a cloistered life when all\nhope seemed futile after the repulses she had received?  Yet to that\nlife she aspired, and not in vain.  For those undertakings which seem\narduous and sometimes impossible become not only practicable, but easy\nto heroic faith.  The invitations which Divine grace held out to her\nand the refusals with which Rita was met by the nuns were nothing more\nthan the loving pleasantries of her heavenly Spouse, and but trials of\nher virtue and constancy.  Therefore the more her wishes were\nfrustrated, the more frequent became her prayers and the more fervent\nthe sighs of her heart.  She had recourse, too, to the mediation of the\nsaints, and did not fear to make herself importunate to her protectors,\nSt. John the Baptist, St. Augustine, and St. Nicholas.  And the measure\nof the effect which her prayers produced was, as St. Augustine teaches,\nthe fervour of the love that preceded them.  She merited the favour she\nsought, and received it.  Here is how the incident is related by the\nwriters of her life:\n\nThe saint was one night kneeling on the ground, rapt in prayer, her\nhands extended to heaven after her usual manner and as the royal\nprophet teaches, when she suddenly heard a knocking at the door of her\nhouse, and someone calling out her name.  The first feeling of the\nlonely widow was one of trouble and fear, but she invoked the Divine\nassistance, took courage, and went to the window--but nothing was to be\nseen or heard.  She returned to her prayer, but was interrupted by the\nsame unknown voice calling her.  Her fear increased, but she went to\nthe window again--and again there was only darkness and silence\nwithout.  She then began to think it might be some trick of the devil,\nand, puzzled between doubt and fear, she threw herself at the feet of\nJesus Christ, and besought Him more fervently to enlighten and to help\nher, and that He would be pleased to make known His Divine will,\nwhether what she had experienced was a delusion of the devil or a voice\nfrom heaven.  Her short prayer was so pleasing to God that Rita soon\nfelt herself rapt in ecstasy, and then she saw and heard clearly, and\nher fear was changed into joyful consolation.  She saw her three holy\npatrons, and heard the joyous words with which the spouse of the\nCanticles called his beloved, 'Arise, make haste, my love, and\ncome--come, for it is time at last to enter the cloister from which\nthou hast been repulsed so many times.'  As soon as these words had\nbeen uttered, the rapture of her ecstasy ceased, but she still\nretained, deeply impressed on her mind, a vivid picture of the entire\nvision.  Then, by a Divine impulse, she went to the window a third\ntime, and, enlightened by God, she saw, to her great surprise, a person\nof venerable aspect, who invited her by signs to follow him.  Whether\nhe appeared in his usual rough vesture of woven camel-hair, or clad in\nskins, or in other guise, we know not, but for certain it was no other\nthan St. John the Precursor, as Rita was not slow to recognise, and he\nit was who was so clearly manifested to her in the preceding vision.\nShe felt her heart overflowing with rapture, and hastened to obey the\nsigns of her heavenly guide.  Hardly had she reached the spot where he\nstood than her astonishment and joy were still further increased, for\nthere, at either side of her great protector, stood her other patrons,\nAugustine and Nicholas, both ready and prepared to escort her towards\nthe fate she desired so ardently for herself.  It will not be out of\nplace to remark here that the house in which Rita dwelt and out of\nwhich she went on the night in which these extraordinary events\noccurred was built at the base of a steep shelf of rock anciently\ncalled the 'Gun' of Rocca Porena, and which it was almost impossible to\nclimb.  Yet, leaving the usual road, it was by way of this rock that\nher sainted guides led Rita, perhaps to indicate to her by the\nprecipitous nature of the place the steepness of the mountain of\nmonastic perfection which she was destined to scale, and by the chasm\nbelow the terrible nature of a fall from grace.  Rita was seized by\nsudden fear at the sight here presented to her, but Divine grace and\nher holy companions brought her comfort, and enabled her to rise\nsuperior to herself, so that she mounted fearlessly through the\ndarkness of the night over the rough stones and trunks of fallen trees\ntill she reached the highest point of that beetling rock, which is now\ncalled the 'Saint's Rock,' from so memorable an occurrence.  If the\nascent of the rock is difficult, the descent on the side of Cascia is\nquite impossible, from whence it is believed that when the four saints\nhad accomplished the difficult ascent they were either borne through\nthe air from mountain to mountain, or else passed without pause to\ntheir intended goal, as if to signify the liberty enjoyed by all who\nreach the highest point of perfection and have climbed the mount of\nGod.  However the authors may differ in minor points in describing this\nevent, we may well judge that everything connected with it is\nmiraculous, as Rita's entry into the convent was also miraculous, for\nshe entered whilst the gates were closed, or through a gate opened for\nher and closed when she had passed the portals by an invisible hand.\n\nWhen Rita found herself within the sacred enclosure where she had so\nardently desired to be, her glorious escort disappeared in a moment\nfrom sight, and she was abandoned and left all alone in the darkness,\nand had to pass the remainder of the night in an ecstasy of wonder, but\ntossed about on a sea of uncertainty by the rush of the thoughts that\nfilled her mind.  The nuns rose in the early morning to sing the\npraises of the Lord, and what was their surprise when they saw within\ntheir convent, and trembling with fright, the humble widow whom they\nhad repeatedly rejected!  They plied her with questions, and Rita\nreplied simply and modestly by describing the whole history of the\nmiraculous occurrence of the night.  For the last time she begged them\nwith the greatest fervour not to reject her any longer--and how could\nthey refuse her in the face of so evident a miracle?  The nuns,\ntherefore, with common consent and unusual applause, received the holy\nwidow into their number, and after joining with her in thanking and\npraising the Most High, they put on her their penitential habit, and\nadmitted her to the novitiate with all solemnity and every mark of\ngeneral satisfaction.  The nuns were delighted at the turn of events,\nand Rita's joy exceeded all bounds, till, comparing her unworthiness\nwith the great goodness of God, she was abashed before Him.  The more\nshe thought on the greatness of the remarkable favours conferred on\nher, the more profound did her humility become, and she poured forth a\nthousand times her tribute of gratitude to heaven, but could never find\nwords or thoughts able to express the thanks she owed to Divine\nProvidence.\n\nThis miraculous entry into the convent occurred during the unhappy\nyears we have before described, or about the year 1413, when Rita was\nnearly thirty-two years of age; for she was married in her thirteenth\nyear, and lived eighteen years with her husband, and was a widow for\nabout a year, when her second son died; whilst the interval between\nthat event and her entry to the convent, the period of her repeated\nrejections, must have been short.  In the same year the Augustinian\nOrder could boast of another splendid addition to its members, for the\nreception of Alexander Oliva, called the Blessed, occurred then.  He\nafterwards reached the highest honours within the Order, and was raised\nto the dignity of Cardinal before he passed to the glory he had\nprepared for himself in heaven.  But the Order has greater reason to be\nproud of Rita's reception, because, although her life was passed in\nobscurity and far from the eyes of the world, it certainly was not less\nbright with the splendour of the Saints, and after death she has\nacquired more of the veneration of the faithful.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nRITA AS NOVICE: HER PROFESSION\n\nFrom her early youth Rita had a great longing for a solitary life, but\nnow that the Omnipotent God had placed her in the convent she had no\nfurther reason to sigh for the deserts of the Jordan, the solitudes of\nTagaste, the silence of Valmanente, the groves of her native place, or\nany other home of hermits.  The cloister constituted the fulfilment of\nall her desires, and her only remaining anxiety was to emulate the\ngreat virtues of her three holy patrons, the blessed hermits of Cascia,\nand the other holy ones whose lives had made the glory of the\nsolitudes.  To say truth, it must have cost her very little labour to\nfollow in their footsteps, for there was no need for her to change her\nhabits and manners when she put off a secular dress for the garb of a\nnun, and she had but to live the remainder of her life as she had\nhitherto lived in order to reach the highest point of perfection.\nJesus Christ teaches us that the surest way of attaining perfection is\nby renouncing all earthly possessions, and our saint, although she had\nalways lived completely detached from worldly things, hastened to\npractise the Saviour's teaching in the most effectual manner by\ndistributing all her slender fortune amongst the poor.  Thus, without\nproperty, without husband or children, and far from her relatives, Rita\nrejoiced to be an abject slave in the house of the King of Peace, and\ndeemed herself to enjoy a nobler freedom, more ample wealth, and a\nhappier lot than they who dwell in the sumptuous tabernacles of sinners\nsurrounded by the riches, the pomp, and the glory of this world.\n\nNo one can tell us better than her companions in religion how she lived\nduring the year of her noviceship, and they were astonished and\nconfused at what they observed in her, and from the first regarded her\nas a model of the purest and most tried virtue.  Poverty, chastity, and\nobedience had nothing to alarm her, for she was long accustomed to live\nin poverty in Rocca Porena; her body she had crucified with Christ in\nGod; and she had lived subject not only to her prudent parents, but to\na cruel husband.  So also had the other virtues which she practised in\nher noviceship become familiar to her in the world, if we except alone\nsome prescribed corporal penances and the more abundant prayers which\nshe was enabled to offer.  Nothing else regarding her can be\nestablished from the scanty memorials of those obscure times, and we\nonly know that as the time of noviceship went on she persevered in\nthose holy practices of extraordinary piety and austere penance, and\nprepared to bind herself to her God with stronger ties on the day of\nher new regeneration.  The learned Cardinal Seripando and others call\nthe day of the formal profession of monastic vows the day of new\nregeneration, for through the sacrifice then made of one's will, of\nbodily pleasures, and of property, the total remission of all\npunishment due to sin may be merited.  That day at length arrived, and\nthe holy novice, having first made a rigorous examination of her whole\nlife and marked all the stains on her pure conscience, which she\nremoved by the fire of her sorrow and the blood of Jesus Christ,\npresented herself before the altar to vow perpetual observance of the\nevangelical counsels.  She had no hesitation in placing her hand on the\nholy Rule of the great Augustine, for her heroic trust in the\nassistance of grace gave her courage, and for the rest, although the\nRule may seem severe to the minds of worldlings, the saints regard it\nbut as a law of love, and a cord to unite souls to God.  Therefore Rita\npreferred this sweet servitude to all the kingdoms of earth, and\nconsidered herself the happiest of women since she had at last reached\nthe goal towards which from her earliest years she had felt herself\ndrawn by heaven's gentle violence.\n\nThe exact date of the profession is unknown, but it very probably took\nplace when Fr. Pietro di Vena Tolosano was General of the Order, and he\nsucceeded in that office Fr. Saracini, who was from Rocca Porena, and\nwho had been made Bishop of Macerata.  The date of profession would\ntherefore be about 1414.  History leaves us to imagine also the\nfeelings of the newly-professed nun, but we may well judge from her\npast that that solemn day was one of an outpouring of love and\ngratitude to God.  But of one incident connected with the day we are\ninformed, and it is that whilst Rita, never satisfied that she had\nsufficiently extolled the goodness of the Lord, was still kneeling late\nat night before the crucifix, she suddenly felt herself ravished out of\nher senses into a state of sublime ecstasy.  She thereupon saw in\nspirit what was given Jacob to see in a dream--a ladder that reached\nfrom earth to heaven, and angels ascending and descending by it, and at\nthe summit our Lord, who was inviting her to ascend.  We may believe\nthat this was the mystic ladder of charity, whose steps, as St.\nAugustine says, God Himself prepares, so that those chosen souls which\nHe wishes to exalt may ascend by them, and at whose top He stands to\nawait them at the term of their journey to receive and introduce them\ninto the possession of heaven.  But no one could penetrate its meaning\nbetter than the ecstatic Rita.  The holy woman awoke from her ecstasy\nenlightened by these heavenly instructions, and came out of the light\nof God to seek Him again and follow His leading with greater anxiety\namidst the darkness of our mortal state.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nRITA'S CHARITY\n\nWhat constitutes the greatness of the mystic city, the new Jerusalem,\nis not the number and variety of its inhabitants, or the fame of great\nundertakings, but charity alone.  In fact, the Virgin Mary was exalted\nabove all the choirs of heaven, and St. John the Baptist was called the\ngreatest of the saints even before the testimony at the Jordan,\nalthough their lives were nothing more than a continuous exercise of\ncharity.  Hence, coming to speak of Rita, if she had charity she\npossessed all things,[1] since the fulness of the law is charity, and\nif she had it in an eminent degree she was a great saint, for perfect\ncharity is perfect justice.[2]  This is the sublime principle which St.\nAugustine, himself a great master of charity and evangelical\nperfection, proposes in that golden Rule of his, which so many\nreligious Orders have adopted, and which Rita observed to the last\nletter--a principle which, as Blessed Alphonsus of Oroza says, is a\nsummary of the entire Christian religion, and which at the same time\nproves the excellence and the adaptability of the Rule to all ages.\n\nIt was to the attainment of charity that Rita even before her\nprofession, but more determinedly afterwards, gave her undivided\nattention, and employed all the affections of her heart and the powers\nof her mind.  We leave it to others to describe her heroic faith and\nhope; for us it will be enough to treat of that virtue which\npresupposes the other two--embraces them and gives them their life.\nThe first proof that one possesses this virtue is fulfilling the will\nof God by observing His holy law, as Jesus Christ taught us when He\nsaid: 'He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them: he it is that\nloveth Me.  And He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I\nwill love him, and will manifest Myself to him.'[3]  Now, all those who\nhave written the life of our saint and the evidence of tradition\nregarding her assure us that she observed with the utmost exactness all\nthe commandments of God, the precepts of the Church, and the commands\nof her superiors.  The very manner with which she observed these\nprecepts was perfect, for she always obeyed cheerfully, and with joy\nreadily and exactly sought to anticipate commands, and to exceed in\nfulfilling them.  And this exact observance was extended not only to\nwhat is of command, but to the evangelical counsels also, and yet so\nlight to her was the weight of this burden that she took upon herself\nvery many works of supererogation to give an outlet to her burning\npiety.  She was the first to rise from her bed at midnight, the first\nat prayer, in the choir, at instruction, at penitential observances and\nthe works of mercy, in obedience, first at all the duties of the\ncommunity, in which latter she was always best pleased the meaner the\noffice entrusted to her to perform.  In the midst of her uninterrupted\noccupations and vigils she had no other thought than to find the safest\nways of seconding the holy will of God, a thought that produced in her\nthat holy fear which is the offspring of love.  She was always afraid\nof offending her most loving God even in the slightest matter, and so\nfearsome of it was she that the very name of sin was a horror to her.\nHence, to remove as far as possible all danger of sin, she imposed on\nherself a law of rigorous silence, for she knew the truth of the saying\nof St. James the Apostle, that 'if any man offend not in word, the same\nis a perfect man.'[4] In order more easily to carry out her design she\nremained shut up in her cell alone with her agonized Spouse Jesus, like\na 'dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hollow places of the\nwall.'[5]  She never left her cell except to find her sovereign good\neither in the Blessed Sacrament or amongst the poor and sick, or in\nsuch other works of charity as her state permitted her to perform.\nEven in circumstances such as these she was on her guard to utter no\nword that she had not weighed well, and it is said of her that she even\nused to keep a pebble in her mouth to remind her to preserve the\nsilence she loved.\n\nSometimes, of course, she had to speak, through necessity or\npoliteness, or for convenience' sake, and in such cases her words were\nin accord with the feelings of her heart, and hence, since she was all\nspirit, her discourses were on things of the spirit; she was all\ncharity, and her speech therefore tended to the greater glory of God\nand the salvation of her neighbours.  She was not wanting in that easy\nfluency which springs from the heart and can reach hearts, which is\nproper to the saints and inspires sanctity, which feeds on love and\ndraws souls to God.  Whether Rita possessed this honied eloquence from\nthe time the wonderful bees appeared over her cradle, or acquired it by\nthe practice of the greatest charity towards her neighbour, only God,\nwho gave it to her, knows.  We only know that she made use of the\nopportunities which this gift afforded her to give advice to doubting\nsouls, to comfort the pusillanimous, to console the afflicted, to bring\nback the erring to the way of salvation, to practise these and other\nworks of mercy with that happy success which the Giver of every good\ngift was wont to grant her.\n\nAmongst her wonderful deeds of charity we find it recorded that having\nheard of two persons of the town who had been long living in a state of\nsin, and were thereby the cause of great public scandal, she wept for\ntheir sins, and then determined on the difficult task of making them\nseparate and leading them to repent.  Rita had had too many proofs of\nthe Divine goodness not to be confident of success in her present\nundertaking.  She first had recourse to prayer and to penance, which\nshe offered in union with the sufferings of Jesus Christ for the\nconversion of the sinners, and then had each of the scandal-givers\nbrought to her in turn, and, alone with them, by her gentle insinuating\nmanner she brought them to see their deplorable condition, and she had\nthe happiness of seeing them shed tears of compunction and afterwards\nperform constant penance for their past transgressions.  In very truth,\nsuch evils as those under which these two sinners laboured were what\nexcited Rita's greatest compassion, but she was by no means wanting in\ncompassion for those suffering from bodily ills, nor was her fervent\ncharity slow in coming to their assistance.  Never was anyone ill in\nthe convent whom Rita did not nurse, often for whole days and nights.\nShe saw in the sick Jesus Christ Himself, and therefore delighted to be\nby their bedsides.  She pitied them, and sought to soothe their pains\nby the sweet considerations which religion, and especially the Passion\nof Christ, inspired her.  With her own hands she gladly rendered them\nevery service, even the meanest and most nauseating, and for this\nblessed work of charity she did not hesitate to forsake her usual\ndevotional practices, and feared not to leave God for God's work.  In a\nword, she was all things to all, for, as St. Paul, too, had\nexperienced, her compassion made the infirmities of the suffering her\nown.  And therefore all those who died in the convent during her forty\nyears of life in it had the happiness of having her for their attendant\nand consoler, and drew their last breath in her holy arms, reclining\nagainst her tender heart.  Her very charity was the reason which\ncondemned her for many years to a total separation from her beloved\nsisters in religion, lest, as we shall tell later, the offensive odour\nof a sore on her forehead, by which she was afflicted, might render her\npresence disagreeable to them.  She then saw very well that she had\nbecome almost an outcast from the community, but she felt no resentment\non that account, but lived as an exile, contented in her cell, since\nshe knew that she was no inconvenience to her neighbour, and gave no\noffence to God.  She even rejoiced in her humiliation and in her\ninfirmities and her separation from creatures.  We omit many other\nproofs of the greatness of the charity to God and her neighbour which\nfilled Rita's heart.  In order to know her charity we have but to\nrecall how she lived with a cruel and ferocious husband, how she\ninterceded for his murderers, how she offered her very children as a\nsacrifice to God, how she devoted her time in the world to deeds and\nprayers for her neighbour's good.  Such was her charity, heartfelt,\nunbounded, kind, patient, strong, and unconquerable.\n\nHitherto we have spoken only of Rita's effective or working charity,\nor, at most, of her love to her neighbour, but what description dare we\ngive of her internal love of God?  It would never be possible for us to\ndescribe the ardour and fire of love which was ever consuming her\nheart.  How her affections soared towards heaven, how her soul was\ntransformed through Divine love, how the interior life of that seraph\nof charity was lived, it would be impossible to describe.  However, we\nshall try to convey an idea, though imperfect, of it, especially when\nwe come to speak of her spirit of prayer.  Meanwhile, the reader may\nform some notion of it by gauging the measure of Rita's charity to her\nneighbour, and from the consideration of what we have hitherto\ndescribed of a life not only blameless and holy, but everywhere aided\nand distinguished by heaven's most singular favours.\n\n\n[1] 1 Cor. xiii.\n\n[2] St. Augustine.\n\n[3] John xiv. 21.\n\n[4] Jas. iii. 2.\n\n[5] Cant. ii. 14.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nOTHER VIRTUES WHICH RITA PRACTISED IN THE CLOISTER\n\nThat truth to which St. Augustine draws our attention in many passages\nin his works--that charity is the source of all other virtues and their\nlife-giving principle--is confirmed by St. Gregory, who illustrates it\nby comparing the virtues to the branches of a tree, which all spring\nfrom the same root, which root of the virtues is charity.  In fact, the\nvirtue of Christian prudence, for example, is nothing else than a\ncontinued eagerness, in those who love God, to distinguish good from\nevil, and to select the fittest means to please the Object of their\nlove, and attain to Him as their last end; justice is but a constant\ndesire in those who love God to render Him the worship due to Him and\ntheir neighbour whatever is theirs; temperance is a curb which they who\nprefer Divine to earthly love employ in order to keep their rebellious\nappetites under the sweet yoke of that heavenly love; fortitude is but\nthe strength of charity which makes man superior to every trouble and\nsuffering; and the teaching of St. Augustine regarding the other\nvirtues is the same, according to their various natures.  Now, if\nRita's charity was as great as we have described it, and as we shall\nafterwards see more clearly, to what a pitch of perfection must she not\nhave reached in her practice of the other virtues!\n\nPrudence, which is the first of the moral virtues, was quite\ncharacteristic of Rita, and invariably showed its presence in her\nexercise of all her other extraordinary gifts.  This it was that taught\nher the saving art of examining and judging rightly and adopting the\nmost suitable means for attaining that better part which, like another\nMary, she had irrevocably chosen for herself; this suggested to her the\nsurest method of regulating her conduct, her appetites, and her very\nworks of penance and devotion; this made her sparing of conversation,\ndiligent, circumspect, cautious, compliant and gentle-mannered; and,\nfinally, this virtue, through her long practice of it, or, rather,\nbecause its origin is in God, enabled her to give the solidest and\nholiest counsel to the advantage of her neighbour.\n\nThe virtue of justice also shone brightly in her life, for her life was\na continuous act of reverential homage to religion, the majesty of God,\nthe greatness of the most holy Virgin Mary, the merits of the Saints,\nthe authority of the Church, the laws of right, of friendship, of\ngratitude, and of truth.\n\nNor was she less remarkable for the virtue of temperance, for she had\nconquered her passions, and kept them subject to the spirit in a way\nentirely heroic, by her continued rigorous fastings and the\nuninterrupted practice of the most austere penances.  It is wonderful\nto consider how her virtue of temperance, which increased and waxed\nstrong amidst harsh and stern surroundings of penitential practices,\nbrought in its train a pretty group of gentler virtues--modesty,\npurity, clemency, meekness, urbanity, graciousness.\n\nRita's fortitude also, which whilst she lived in the world was\nextraordinary, increased in the cloister in proportion with her other\nvirtues, if we may not say it surpassed the others, since it was the\ndistinguishing mark of her character.  The devil, of course, tried, by\ninsidious suggestions, to tarnish the purity of her heart and inspire\nher with a love of sensual pleasures and a distaste for perfection; but\nalthough his infernal assaults were strong and long continued, our\nsaint, who had prepared her mind against temptation from her youth, and\nwas now become an unconquerable heroine in the army of Christ, was so\nwell able to defend herself and fight valiantly that temptation only\nserved to multiply her triumphs and her laurels.  It is said, too, that\nthe tempter, seeing that he failed in his interior assaults, sought to\nfrighten her by horrible phantoms; but in vain, for Rita, by the sign\nof the Cross, put him to flight, and showed her scorn for him as a\npowerless enemy.  The flesh, too, tried to rebel against the law of the\nspirit; but the holy woman kept it as a slave in bonds of sackcloth,\nand brought it into subjection by sanguinary scourgings.  Even the\nlittle world of her convent tried her virtue in some sense, especially\nduring the years she suffered from the sore on her forehead.  But\nRita's fortitude made these little trials seem but playful caresses.\nThe pain and the stench of the sore, the inconveniences of her poverty\nand mortification, the great length of her last illness, and other\nsimilar troubles with which the Lord tries the souls that are most\nacceptable to Him, instead of depressing her were rather as food to\nstrengthen and increase her fortitude, magnanimity, patience,\nconfidence in God, and final perseverance.\n\nWith all this precious equipment of wonderful gifts and sublime\nvirtues, Rita had, nevertheless, the meanest opinion of herself, and\nspoke of herself as if she were the vilest of creatures, thankless for\nthe gifts which Divine goodness had bestowed on her, a miserable\nsinner, and unworthy to enjoy the companionship of so many sacred\nvirgins of the Lord.  She not only spoke in this manner, but wished\neveryone to have the same opinion which, in her heart, she had of\nherself.  Hence she had a horror of praise, and when at meditation she\nfelt those extraordinary lights and that spiritual ardour which\npreceded her ecstasies, she used to beseech God that He would\ncondescend so to work in her soul that her companions might not be\nconscious of it, and might never be led to have a favourable opinion of\nher.  But it was her humility that betrayed her expectations, for the\nmore she humbled herself, the more was she exalted, not only in the\neyes of God, but of men, and the deeper she sunk herself in the abyss\nof lowliness, the higher was raised the edifice of her sanctity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nRITA'S OBSERVANCE OF THE RELIGIOUS VOWS\n\nThere is a love which is the soul of every virtue, and another love\nwhich is an incentive to every vice; the former we call charity, the\nlatter concupiscence.  Charity, since it comes from heaven, has for its\naim three noble objects--God, ourselves, and our neighbours.\nConcupiscence, since it is altogether of the earth, has low aims, which\nare likewise threefold--the pomp of the world, self-interest, and\npleasure.  According as one or other of these is stronger in us we\nattain sanctification and happiness, or spiritual ruin and misery.  To\ndestroy the reign of perverse love and these three hostile passions\nthere are no arms more reliable than those which attack their very\nfoundations, and these arms are obedience, poverty, and chastity.\nThese were the arms which Rita continued to wield until she received\nfrom her Divine Spouse the eternal crown prepared for her ripe and\nsplendid virtues!\n\nThe strongest weapon of the perfect is obedience, and when it is\nemployed by charity it opens up the way to every good object, as, on\nthe other hand, disobedience lays open the way to every evil, visible\nand invisible, of the world.  To begin with the consideration of this\ngreat virtue, which Rita made a solemn vow to practise, we can affirm\nthat she possessed it in a most eminent degree.  All her actions were\nso many acts of obedience, or, rather, her whole conventual life was an\nuninterrupted act of the humblest, truest, and readiest obedience.\nFollowing the principles of her enlightened piety, she knew only too\nwell the truth declared to Samuel, that the sacrifice of the will is\nmore acceptable to God than the sacrifice of victims.[1]  She always\nkept before her eyes the example of a God who, for our instruction,\nwilled to live subject to His own creatures.  She felt moved to imitate\nthe heroic virtue of so many sainted monks and nuns, and she saw\nclearly the great advantage which obedience gave in directing our steps\nthrough this world of darkness and sin.  She therefore subjected\nherself not only to all the laws of the Gospel, of the Church, of the\nRule and Constitutions of her Order, and not only obeyed with respect\nand alacrity all the commands of the different superiors she had, and\ncarried out the duties of the various offices she filled, but she\neagerly desired to subject herself to her equals or juniors in the\nconvent, and sought to anticipate the commands even of these, to follow\ntheir counsels and carry out their desires, esteeming herself only as\nthe unworthy servant of all.  Virtue so rare deserved to be put to the\nseverest proof, since God often tries the virtue of the pious either\nHimself or through the means of others.\n\nThe trial of Rita's obedience was this: The Prioress, who had observed\nher great spirit of submission, commanded her to water every day a\ndried-up tree that was in the convent garden.  Rita made no objection\nagainst so strange a command; she did not say that such an order was\noutside the matters to which the Rule obliged her; she did not even\nsubmit that it would be time lost, for she was convinced that the time\nin which any work of obedience is done is time well spent.  Therefore,\nwith her will in complete accord with the orders she received, she\ncontinued to obey them for several seasons, and in this she was\nimitating the example of the holy abbot John, of whom we read in the\nlives of the Fathers that, in order to follow the instructions of his\ndirector, he humbled himself so far as to carry a pail of water a\nconsiderable distance to water a dry trunk of a tree.  So did St. Rita\nlikewise, and not in vain; for so pleasing to God were her acts of\nheroic obedience that, as tradition tells, the tree bloomed again, and\nbegan to bear flowers and fruit, and from that fact it was called the\n'Saint's Tree.'\n\nWhat chiefly concerned her was that her obedience should bear fruit\nunto eternal life, and hence the love which her heart felt for this\nbeautiful virtue was ever increasing.  She therefore sought the\napproval, direction, and restraining influence of another's will not\nonly in her temporal undertakings, but also in her devotional and\npenitential exercises.  When there was question of going to Rome to\ngain the indulgences of the jubilee year, and again when she was to be\nseparated during the last years of her life from the pleasant society\nof her sisters in religion, she allowed no consideration of fervent\npiety, no personal reluctance, to come between her and her duty towards\nholy obedience, from which she would not swerve an iota.  Thus our\nsaint passed the rest of her life without a will of her own, or, if she\nhad a will, it was one that desired to do nothing except what obedience\nordered, in this way making certain of doing the will of God in all\nthings, which was the single object of all her desires.  This is how\nshe conquered in herself and annihilated that great predominant passion\nof man, the love of worldly glory.\n\nShe conquered also the second strong passion--love of self-interest--by\na generous love of evangelical poverty.  We have already remarked how\nfrom her earliest years, and amongst the comforts of her father's\nhouse, she was enamoured of this holy poverty, and how she was\naccustomed to observe it in her humble manner of dress, in opposing all\noutward show, in the frugality of her living, in her abstinence, in\ndepriving herself of her best garments for the poor, and in renouncing\nin their favour all her earthly possessions at her entrance into\nreligion, whence it seems, there was nothing else that could be added\nexcept the vow and perseverance.  Nevertheless, the spirit of poverty\nmarkedly increased in Rita whilst she lived in the convent, where she\nwas chosen to dwell till her death.  There, in truth, everything\nbreathed humility and straitness of means, and she might well be\nsatisfied that by ordinary observance she was fulfilling her vow.  But\nsaints are never satisfied unless they go beyond the goal of ordinary\nmortals and if they do not reach the heroic point of virtue.  It\nhappened thus in Rita's case, for although she loved uniformity and was\nopposed to those singularities which often deserve to be the subject of\nsuspicion, yet she felt that she ought not to oppose God's\ninspirations, or confine herself solely to the usages of the community,\nbut, subject to obedience, she carried the rigours of religious poverty\nmuch farther.  We might tell here of her protracted fastings and the\nsmall quantity of food of the poorest sort with which she kept herself\nalive, but we shall speak of these things in a subsequent chapter, and\nshall now only touch on the poverty of her dress and of her abode.\n\nShe did not show her poverty by wearing a coarser habit or one\ndiffering in any way from those of her sisters in religion, yet there\nis one particular that shows in a singular, not to say miraculous,\nmanner her spirit of poverty; for, like the Hebrews in the desert, from\nthe moment she put her foot in the convent till she entered the\npromised land of the blessed, a period of more than forty years, she\nhad only one habit, which she wore night and day, and even during her\nillnesses.  As regards the poverty of her dwelling-place, her little\nroom, which may still be seen, declares it sufficiently, for it is only\na narrow cell, the least of all, crushed into a corner of the\ndormitory, and with no light except a sort of twilight that filters\ninto it from the common window.  A few pictures representing the\nmysteries of our Lord's Passion were its only ornaments; the bed was\nhard and rough, and more adapted to give pain than rest; all other\nnecessaries were wanting.  Yet the holy penitent lived there contented,\nand considered herself rich and wealthy, especially when she considered\nthe nakedness of the Crucified One, for she regarded the Cross of\nChrist, her loving Spouse, as a mirror wherein to behold herself.  The\ncold words 'mine' and 'thine' which have been the cause of division in\nfamilies and kingdoms, and still divide hearts, never issued from her\nlips, and even the things most necessary to her she let depend on her\nSuperior's will, and was always ready to deprive herself of them at the\nslightest beck of authority, for she never had the least desire to own\nanything.\n\nThere is related of her a singular fact, which proves her detachment\nfrom the things of earth.  Going on a journey undertaken for reasons of\ndevotion, of which we shall speak later, with some of the nuns of the\nconvent, she threw into a river the money that had been given her to\ndefray her expenses, or, as others say, which she accidentally found.\nHer companions thought that, considering their great necessity, this\nwas an act of real imprudence, and could not refrain from blaming her.\nBut Rita, who was full of confidence in the protection of heaven,\nassured them they would want for nothing; and so it happened, for they\nwanted for nothing throughout their journey.  That God who feeds the\nbirds of the air and the fishes of the deep took care to provide His\nservant and her companions with every necessary on their long way.  In\nsuch a way did Rita, poor in possessions and in spirit, advance with\ngreat strides on the way of perfection, and add new riches to the\nincorruptible treasures she had laid up in heaven.\n\nBy poverty and obedience she had overcome the two passions of\nself-interest and worldly glory; there remained the third passion, that\nfor sensual pleasures, against which our saint had to wage a more\nbitter war, because, like the Apostle, she felt in herself that law\nthat was contrary to the law of the spirit, and because, as St.\nAugustine writes, this is precisely the hardest fight that has to be\nfought by Christians and the perfect.  It is true that this most\nvirtuous woman was accustomed from her earliest years to watch over all\nher thoughts and to keep a careful guard on her senses, and that from\nher youth she had determined to preserve the candour of her virginity\nintact; that she constantly preserved the most exemplary modesty; that\nshe avoided to the utmost of her power, even when in the world, all\nevil discourse and companions and other incentives to impurity; that\nshe had lived most chastely and immaculately even as a wife.  Yet with\nall this she was not free from temptations, and to conquer them she had\nrecourse to an extreme rigour of life.\n\nThe demon used all his power in attacking Rita's purity; at one time he\ntempted her by impure phantasms, at another by seductive apparitions.\nBut she put him to flight by her lively faith and her austere penances.\nIn the fiercest assaults of temptation she went so far as to burn her\nhand or foot, thus putting out one fire by the pain of another, in\norder to keep herself entirely pure in the sight of her most pure\nheavenly Spouse.  Through love of this virtue she avoided all\nopportunities of seeing or being seen, and she adopted this safeguard\neven with her own relatives.  When she had sometimes to appear abroad\nshe showed such recollection, modesty, and gravity as to excite the\nwonder of others and attract universal veneration.  So remarkable was\nher modesty on such occasions that when she came back to the convent\n(in those days the obligations of enclosure were not so strict as they\nnow are) she was sometimes able to declare that she had not seen a\nsingle person.  This circumspection which our saint employed in the\ncustody of her eyes may seem excessive to worldly-minded people, but\n'everyone hath his proper gift from God';[2] and besides, the means of\nattaining to extraordinary virtue like Rita's are not always ordinary;\nnor were her penances, which were a means to this end, ordinary\npenances.  If such was the violence of her spiritual struggles, there\nis no doubt but that the victories she gained were remarkable and\nproductive of many good results, and that the reward which God reserved\nfor her in a happy eternity was passing great.\n\n\n[1] 1 Kings xv. 22.\n\n[2] 1 Cor. vii. 7.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nRITA'S PENANCES\n\nHowever hard and sharp penance may appear at the first glance, yet it,\ntoo, is a daughter of love, love that gives strength to put a curb on\ncarnal appetites, which are ever striving to rebel against the first\nuncreated love, and which incites to reparation of past offences and\natonement for them.  It is no wonder, then, that Rita, who was burning\nwith the flame of Divine love, and who had the holiest horror of sin,\nshould carry her austerities even to the point of heroism.  True, such\ninnocence did not deserve so great pains; but she who, in her profound\nhumility, thought herself full of defects and faults, who knew human\nfrailty and the frequent dangers of falling into sin, and who was not\nexempt from the wicked suggestions of the world, the flesh, and the\ndevil, did not consider herself exempt from those penances which she\npractised, for the good of sinners, as a defence against danger and an\nassurance of victory in temptation.  Her whole life, therefore, was one\ncontinued exercise of penance owing to the great self-denial which she\nexhibited from her early youth, but more markedly in her married life\nand her widowed state, and owing also to the fastings she practised in\nthe world, and the other mortifications which we mentioned in former\nchapters, but, above all, owing to the severe and almost incredible\nchastising of the flesh, which she made a law that she observed during\nall the years she lived in the cloister.\n\nTo begin with her fastings, hardly had she embraced the Rule of St.\nAugustine, which exhorts all to conquer the flesh by fasting as much as\nhealth will permit, than she abandoned herself to a life of the most\nrigorous and prolonged fasting.  She never admitted any of those\nexaggerated pretexts which the delicate sex finds it so easy to allege\nin order to be dispensed from the laws of fasting and abstinence.  She\nonly knew that God is not deceived, and that to desire to deceive one's\nself is impious folly.  She therefore had no hesitation in fulfilling\nthe most rigorous laws of abstinence without any ill-timed fear of\ninjuring her health.  Every year she fasted during three entire Lents,\nand also on the vigils of all holidays of obligation, of all the feasts\nof the Blessed Virgin, of all the saints of the Order, and of her\nparticular advocates, not to mention other extraordinary fasts which\nshe observed.  She took food only once a day, and never drank wine.\nHer condiments were often wormwood, ashes, and tears.  For the greater\npart of the year she lived on bread and water, and as she advanced in\nyears and progressed in sanctity she reduced her food to such scanty\nproportions that it was looked on as a miracle how she could in such a\nway support life.  St. Augustine's most prudent Rule does not prescribe\nsuch things, and therefore Rita, by her heroic fasts, gave all the more\nglory to the Most High; and by imitating the abstinences of the\nBaptist, of St. Nicholas of Tolentine, and her other protectors, all\nwell-known models of penitence, she rendered them the truest honour,\nfor the best way of honouring the saints is to imitate their virtues.\nBut not only did she try to follow their example by penances of this\nsort, but in all the other austerities of her life she endeavoured to\nimitate them as exactly as her condition allowed.\n\nThe very dwelling-place in which she hid herself proclaimed her\npenitential disposition, for it was only a little cell, bare and dark,\nand had rather the appearance of a prison to which she had been\ncondemned for some serious crime.  We do not know for certainty whether\neven for appearance' sake there was a bed in it, but we do know very\nwell that when Rita was overcome by natural weariness she took her\nshort repose stretched on the ground, or, at best, on a board.  She\nrose without fail from that hardest of couches at midnight to begin the\ninfliction of greater torment on herself; for at that hour she scourged\nherself with a scourge of iron in order to appease Divine justice in\nfavour of the souls in purgatory, who, though still of the communion of\nsaints and participators in our suffrages, are left to suffer the\ngreatest sorrow, deprived as they are of the Beatific Vision and\ntortured by the pain of their fires.  Her great charity made her feel\nthe holiest compassion for these unhappy souls, and it was charity that\nnerved her arm to continue these scourgings; but if she ever felt for\nherself charity, too, might have induced her to lay aside her\nensanguined whip of iron.  On two other occasions every day she took\nthe discipline, once for the benefactors of her convent and Order, when\nshe used thongs of leather, and again for the conversion of sinners, at\nwhich her whip was of twisted and knotted cords.  With all this she was\nnot satisfied if that rebellious enemy her flesh were not suffering\ncontinual pain, and hence she always wore next her skin a cilicium made\nof rough bristles, and on the inner side of her habit she fastened\nthorns that pricked her painfully at every movement she made.  Amongst\nthese thorns and the painful practices of her life our saint lay\nhidden, like the mystic lily of the sacred Canticles, inaccessible to\npassions, guarded on every side, growing more beautiful and brighter\nevery day, because more like her heavenly Spouse crowned with thorns.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nRITA'S SPIRIT OF PRAYER\n\nIf Rita's body, oppressed by fastings, imprisoned in hair shirts and\ngalling bonds, made livid by scourgings, was forced to groan and sigh,\nit was far otherwise with her spirit.  The more the body was crushed\nunder the weight of penances, the more were the spaces of the soul\nenlarged, the greater its liberty, the more readily might it raise\nitself above all earthly things, to be plunged into the sublime depths\nof heavenly things and taste of their ineffable sweetness.  And if her\nspirit sighed, it was a far different sigh from that of the body; it\nwas the sigh of the dove--a sigh of peace and love such as was foretold\nby the Holy Spirit the Consoler by the mouth of the Psalmist to all\nsouls that devote themselves to penance and prayer--'Rise ye after ye\nhave sitten, you that eat the bread of sorrow.'[1]\n\nThe same wonderful effects of grace were experienced by St. Augustine,\nwho in his exposition of that verse of the Psalms could not refrain\nfrom exclaiming, 'How sweet are the sighs and the tears of prayer!  No\npleasure of the theatres or of the world can equal the joy of such\ntears.'[2]  We must not, however, come to the conclusion that this\ninterior joy was the chief motive that made our saint love prayer, for\nshe loved the God of consolations much more than she loved the\nconsolations of God; but it was an innocent attraction to her\nGod-loving heart, and on that account she never could interrupt\nexercises so dear to her without feeling pain.\n\nWe have already related that from her childhood she had received the\ngift of prayer, and which she developed in a striking way even in the\nyears of her early youth; and we have told how she gave herself\nentirely to prayer during the year of her marvellous retirement in her\nfather's house, and how she continued to make progress in devotional\npractices, especially when she was freed from the ties and cares of\nmatrimony.  Yet when we compare all these things with her advancement\nafter she has embraced a conventual life, they seem but the very\nbeginning of piety.  As a nun, Rita's prayers were offered in the\ndarkness of the night, in the early morning, throughout the\nday--prayer, in a word, was her life, for not even for a moment could\nshe withdraw herself from the presence of her uncreated Love.  The\nhours between midnight and the break of day were the fullest of delight\nfor her, and the most favourable in which to treat all alone with God\nthe most important affairs of eternity and to pour out the fulness of\nher love at the feet of the Crucified One.  In the winter time, however\nprolonged her vigils were, that time was always short to her, and\ndaylight came unlooked for.  It seemed to her, as once to St. Anthony\nthe abbot, that the sun was doing her wrong by appearing too soon, for\nshe feared that he was coming to scatter with his rays the beautiful\nlight of her heavenly exaltations and seraphic thoughts.  She never\nwanted matter whereon to meditate, for the attributes of God and His\ninexhaustible beneficence were to her subjects that she could never be\nweary of considering.  The sole thought that she was in the presence of\nthe majesty of God, that infinite majesty that fills with its being\nheaven and earth and the abysses, was sufficient to raise her above\nevery created thing and transform her into God Himself.\n\nOne subject, nevertheless, beyond every other, occupied Rita's\nmind--that of the Passion of Jesus Christ.  It almost seems as if she\nhad inherited from her parents this particular devotion, and that upon\nit she had laid the foundation-stone of her sanctity.  It was to the\nPassion that she was accustomed from childhood to direct her thoughts\nand affections, her sighs and tears.  The reader may remember how at a\ntender age she shut herself into the little room at home, and there\ncontinued to meditate on the sorrowful mysteries, which also were\ndepicted in the pictures which hung on the walls, and, better still,\nwere carved on her heart.  The senses should do their part the better\nto assist the soul in its efforts after piety, and this was the reason\nwhy Rita procured and kept in her cell in the convent certain\nrepresentations of the Passion of her dear Jesus.\n\nTo this end she kept in two distinct parts of her cell objects that\nrecalled to her the history of the Passion.  In one place she\nconstructed a representation of a mountain, which, whenever she looked\nupon it, recalled Mount Calvary and all the torments which the Saviour\nof the world suffered there.  She meditated with sighs and tears on her\nDivine Spouse arriving there, falling under the terrible weight of His\ntorments, His cross, and all the sins of men.  With an outburst of\nweeping she thought of Him deprived of His garments and fixed to the\ncross with rough nails.  She meditated with the liveliest compassion on\nthe cruel strokes of the hammer that tore His hands and feet, and on\nall the other terrible torments that Jesus suffered for love of men.\nIn another corner of her cell she had a representation of the Holy\nSepulchre, and at sight of it she considered how the adorable body of\nChrist was placed in it, how for three days it remained buried, how His\nspirit went down to console the holy fathers in Abraham's bosom, and,\nfinally, how the Redeemer rose again to a new life triumphant and\nglorious.  During these meditations our saint was always alone; as\nJeremias says, 'she sat solitary and held her peace, and was raised\nabove herself';[3] in that sweet silence, in those loving soliloquies,\nin that intimate intercourse with God she was superior to passion, to\nnature, and to herself.  So great was her mental exaltation during her\nmeditation on the Divine mysteries that she was often raised above the\nlife of the senses and rapt in delicious ecstasies, and on one\noccasion, so strong was the ecstatic influence, the nuns thought she\nwas dead.\n\nNow, seeing that she soared to such sublime heights in prayer, it will\nbe no wonder that she possessed also as she did, and in a singular\nmanner, the gifts of wisdom and intelligence, so that she could reason\non the perfections of God and on the most abstruse mysteries of faith\nwith a subtle knowledge that could be acquired by no study nor any\nnatural capacity.  Thus God hides the secrets of His wisdom from the\nwise of this world and reveals them to His humble servants, to those\nwho appear ignorant in the eyes of the world.  All these things excited\nto rage the infernal enemy of all good and all sanctity, and in order\nto make the holy nun desist from her pious practice he tried to\nfrighten her with horrible yells and dreadful apparitions.  But she\ncontinued to be motionless in prayer, and by prayer itself triumphed\nover all the powers of hell.  By the merit of her prayers, too, she\nacquired a certain authority over devils.  A proof of this is that a\nwoman who had for years been harassed by diabolical interference was\nfreed from it by Rita.  Through prayer, too, she obtained the grace of\na supernatural healing for a young girl who was ill, whose mother had\nthe consolation of seeing her cured after having brought her to the\nsaint to ask the help of her prayers.  We know that God was accustomed\nto grant whatever she asked for, and so great was the fame of her\nsuccessful intercession and sanctity that devout people, confident in\nher advocacy, came to her in crowds, and of all who came none went away\ndissatisfied.  Yet these were but the first-fruits that appeared\nexternally and to the eyes of men to testify to the extraordinary\nefficacy of her prayers.  We shall see more clearly in the remainder of\nher life, and much more so after her death, in the many prodigious\nworks that God performed through her intercession, how great was the\nmerit of our saint's faith and of her prayers.\n\nWe may also mention at the conclusion of this chapter the most fervent\nprayers which she often offered before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament\nand before the pictures of the most holy Virgin; but it was not the\ncircumstance of place that chiefly enkindled her devotion, for at every\ninstant and in all places she found Jesus and Mary, and a thousand\nobjects adapted to excite her most fervent piety.\n\n\n[1] Ps. cxxvi. 3.\n\n[2] Ps. cxxvi.\n\n[3] Lam. iii. 28.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\n  A THORN FROM THE SAVIOUR'S CROWN OF THORNS\n  WOUNDS RITA'S FOREHEAD\n\nRita had lived thirty years in the convent, leading that saintly life\nwe have described, and had attained her sixty-second year, when, in the\nyear 1443, it pleased God to mark in a wonderful manner, and, as it\nwere, put His seal on her merit by conferring on her a privilege that\nis well worthy to be described.\n\nThere lived at that time St. James of the Marshes, one of those\nApostolic men whom God then raised up, like St. Vincent Ferrer, St.\nLaurence Giustiniani, St. Bernardine of Siena, and St. John of\nCapestrano, to be strong barriers against the depravity of the world,\nthe rage of civil discord, the shock of schism, and the advance of\nrising heresies.  After many years passed with great advantage to souls\nin the missions of Bosnia, Hungary, and the East, he was recalled in\nthat year by Pope Eugene IV., who destined him to preach the Crusade in\nthe province of Aquila, against the infidel Sultan Amurath II., who had\nalready penetrated into the heart of Hungary.  On his return he had\noccasion to go through the territory and towns of Spoleto preaching the\nGospel, and he expounded the word of God in Cascia amongst other\nplaces.  His discourses in Cascia were on the subject of our Lord's\nPassion, and Rita was present at them.  That a nun was present amongst\nthe people to hear the holy preacher will cause no astonishment when we\nknow that although the law of religious enclosure had been established\nby many Councils and by Pope Boniface VIII., yet its observance was not\nrigorously enforced until the time of the Council of Trent, and nuns\nmight go out of their convents, especially when there was question of\nfulfilling religious duties or to hear the word of God preached.\n\nRita, then, with the other nuns of her convent, was present at the\nsermons, which she listened to with that purity of intention that casts\nout all curiosity, and has for its only objects the glory of God and\nthe sanctification of the soul.  The sanctity and zeal of the preacher,\nwho had long known the secret of touching the most hardened hearts,\nwill enable us to judge of the effects of his preaching.  That his\nsubject was our Lord's Passion--the chief object of Rita's meditation,\nand which excited her to the highest point of the love of God--will be\nenough to tell us how deeply his discourses must have impressed her.  A\ndivine compassion filled her heart, and she only restrained her tears\nas she listened in order afterwards to pour them copiously forth when\nshe knelt before the crucifix in the old oratory of the convent.  One\nday, as she was there prostrated, wounded in spirit by the vehemence of\nher great sorrow, with much sobbing she prayed and besought her Love,\nwho had been crowned with thorns, to permit her whilst still in the\nflesh to taste at least of the bitter chalice of His sufferings.  Her\nheartfelt prayers were heard, and she saw one of the thorns of the\ncrown of the crucifix detach itself, as it were, and strike her on the\nleft side of the forehead with such force that it almost penetrated the\nbone, causing her exquisite pain.  She fainted from the pain, and it\nseemed to her that only by a miracle could she survive such great\nsuffering.  But love was stronger than pain in her, and grace supported\nthe weakness of nature itself.  The wound, which by time grew larger,\nfestered, and became wormy, was visible on her forehead for fifteen\nyears.  The worms and the offensive smell, similar to that which once\ntormented Job, increased the pain of the wound and disgusted others.\nBut these things formed the delight of the patient nun, whose one\ndesire was to become like her Saviour, who, as the prophet Isaias\nsays,[1] was become for her and for the human race the most abject of\nmen and the Man of Sorrows, whose look was hidden and despised--a\nprophecy so exactly fulfilled that He was unrecognisable when the\nstreams of blood flowed down His face from the wounds the thorns had\nmade in His head.  When Rita was asked, as she sometimes was, what the\nworms were that occasionally fell from her forehead, she used to reply,\nwith a joyous smile, 'They are my little angels,' letting it thereby be\nseen that the more she was humbled and afflicted in the flesh, the more\nshe rejoiced in spirit, as was also the case with St. Francis of Assisi\nand St. Catherine of Siena, whose great privilege of the stigmata is\ncelebrated by feasts of the Church, and also with another Augustinian\nnun, St. Clare of Montefalco, on the living flesh of whose heart\nmiraculous representations of the Passion were impressed.  Rita\nrejoiced the more in this gift, inasmuch as it procured for her more\nfrequent occasion of exercising herself in humility, patience,\nretirement, silence, prayer, and the love of that God who had conferred\non her so marked a distinction.  From thenceforward as long as she bore\nthat mark of the Redemption on her forehead, which was as long as she\nlived, she never ceased to thank Him for it and to praise and bless\nHim.  She, too, was become an outcast from amongst men, but instead of\nbeing afflicted thereby she was only the more strongly united to God,\nin whom all her desires and all her hopes of consolation were centred.\nShe considered that singular effect of Divine grace which is not\noffended by unsightliness of body as abundant compensation for any\nsufferings she had to bear and as a pledge of an ample eternal reward\nin heaven.\n\n\n[1] Isa. liii. 3.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\n  RITA GOES TO ROME TO GAIN THE INDULGENCE OF\n  THE JUBILEE\n\nIf Rita's life till the time when she received the wound in her\nforehead may be called a hidden life, from thenceforward it was a\nburied life, and invisible to the eyes of men.  On that account,\npassing in silence over an interval of eight years, our history\nproceeds to describe the events of her life in the year 1450.  The\nintervening years were not, however, years of idleness for our holy\nnun, or if she did enjoy repose it was not very dissimilar from that of\nthe blessed in heaven, and perhaps of more advantage to the Church than\nany active efforts of hers.  The Western Church, as a matter of fact,\nhad just then, through the prayers of the saints, arisen from its state\nof dejection and abasement.\n\nThe schism of the Greeks, Armenians, and Ethiopians had come to an end\nten years before, and the glory of that happy event was attributed\nprincipally to the merits of St. Nicholas of Tolentine, who was\ncanonized at that time by Pope Eugene IV.  The other schism, of the\nanti-Popes, died out, too, a few months later, when Felix V.\nvoluntarily abdicated; and Rita's penances and prayers must have\nco-operated in bringing about so joyful a conclusion.\n\nNicholas V., who occupied the chair of Peter, was thus enabled to\nproclaim peacefully a solemn jubilee for the year 1450, to throw open\nthe treasure-house of Divine indulgences for the advantage of the\nfaithful.  This was the sixth jubilee celebrated in the new Church of\nJesus Christ, and seeing that the Church was enjoying the lately\nrestored peace, and that piety had begun again to spring up, greater\ncrowds of people than ever before, from all parts of the world, were\nflocking to Rome to participate in the extraordinary spiritual favours.\nWhen even the least devout were hastening thither, we may judge how\nardent was Rita's desire of availing of so precious an occasion.  She\nwas aware that even her sisters in religion were preparing to set out\nfor Rome, and she, who for many years and until that moment seemed in\nher retirement to hate the very light of day, was not afraid to leave\nher cell for a purpose so holy; and making light of the inconveniences\nof travel and of her advanced age, she threw herself at the feet of the\nSuperior, and begged leave to join the other nuns in their devout\npilgrimage.  But the Prioress did not think it prudent that Rita, owing\nto the offensive nature of the sore on her forehead, should appear in\npublic or undertake a journey, and therefore sent her back to her cell,\ntelling her that she should first think of curing her wound, and then\nshe would grant the permission asked for.  The condition imposed almost\nin jest was not long in being fulfilled, for Rita had recourse to\nfervent prayer to the Lord, who had inspired her with the desire of\ngoing on the pilgrimage, and who was accustomed to grant all her\npetitions, and she received instantly the favour she so ardently\ndesired.  It is to be remarked here that Rita, who always, in her\nprofound humility, endeavoured to hide the favours of heaven, chose in\nthis instance to make use of an ointment in order to conceal the\nmiracle of her instantaneous healing.  But the work of God was too\nevident, and the Superior had therefore no hesitation in granting the\npermission that Rita sought, and her blessing.\n\nShe set out on foot in the company of her sisters in religion without\nany consideration for her age, which was then about sixty-nine years,\nwith no dread of the long journey or the inconveniences of the season,\nand she pushed forward joyously towards the metropolis of the Catholic\nworld.\n\nIt was on this journey that the incident occurred which was mentioned\nwhen speaking of her spirit of poverty, that when she was crossing over\na river she threw into it the little sum of money that was given to her\nprobably to supply their wants on the pilgrimage.  Her companions\nblamed her for what she had done; but not God, who had secretly urged\nher to that act of generosity, and who afterwards provided herself and\nher companions with all they needed until their return to the convent.\nWhen she arrived at her journey's end she lost no time in gazing on\nthose monuments of profane antiquity of which Rome is so proud, but\ndirected all the feelings and sentiments of her body and soul towards\nthose things that were the objects of her piety--the memories of the\nholy martyrs, the confessions of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul,\ndevout visits to the churches, and the gaining of the holy indulgences.\nIt would seem, indeed, that having led such a stainless life, and after\nso great and so severe penances, that she had no need to have recourse\nto those extraordinary means of atonement for sin; but holiness is\nalways deeply humble, and the same humility which led St. Briget and\nSt. Catherine to the second jubilee brought St. Rita a century later to\nthe sixth.  Enriched with new treasures of grace, and impatient to be\nfree from the din of the streets and the perpetual crush of people, she\nwith her companions, ever in the arms of Divine Providence, began the\njourney back to Cascia, and after walking four or five days arrived\nagain at the convent and her beloved cell.  She had hardly reached home\nwhen, wonderful to tell, the sore on her forehead, which had healed up\nby the power of God a little before she set out from Cascia, suddenly\nbroke out again, and thereby made it more evident that the preceding\ncure had been miraculous.  Never more, until the day of her death, was\nRita to be deprived of a privilege so dear to her.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nRITA'S LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH\n\nRita survived seven years after her return from Rome.  The first three\nof these, like the eight preceding years, are hidden under the veil of\nGod's deep designs, for it is not granted to us to discover anything of\nher exterior life during that period.  Of her interior life, too, there\nis nothing left, if we except certain general knowledge of her spirit\nof penance, her continued love of prayer, and her union with God ever\nbecoming closer.\n\nThree years passed, and Rita had reached the seventy-second year of her\nage and the fortieth of her life in religion, when it pleased the Lord\nto visit her with an illness which afflicted her for four years, and\nended only with her life.  This is the first time after so many years\nthat any illness of Rita's is mentioned, except the sore on her\nforehead, which goes far to prove that even long-continued and rigorous\npenances are not--contrary to the opinion of the world's\ndelicacy--opposed to bodily health or calculated to shorten life.  It\nmight seem, indeed, that, considering the great misfortunes she had to\nbear, the many humiliations, and the many voluntary penances she\nundertook, she ought to be exempted from this final suffering.  With\nall that, God wished that this beautiful work of His hands should be\nmarked by the greatest perfection, and desired to exalt her to the\nhigher places in His glory, and He also willed to add to her past\nsufferings and the still present troubles of her wounded forehead the\npain of this long illness.  We do not know with certainty what malady\nshe suffered from, but, whatever it was, it resisted all the remedies\nof science.  It is not improbable that, as one of the writers of her\nlife suggests, it was a wasting fever, one of those maladies that sap\nthe vital strength by degrees through an obstinate and mortal languor,\nand finally causes death.\n\nDuring all that time she remained confined to her hard bed, and the\nmanner in which she bore all the pains and annoyances of her long\nillness was a cause of the greatest edification to all who assisted,\nfor her face not only showed the resignation and serenity of her mind,\nbut she was always desiring to suffer still greater pain, and was for\never thanking Divine Providence that deigned to purify her in this\nworld and give her some occasion of acquiring merit.  But there was one\npain she felt more than any other, and it was because through illness\nshe was become useless to the community, and even a burden and trouble\nto her sisters, especially by reason of the deformity and offensiveness\nof the sore on her forehead; yet not even the grief of this could take\naway from her the merit of her most heroic resignation to the will of\nGod and equally heroic humility and patience.  Yet another matter there\nwas which must have weighed heavily on her, when we compare the very\nlowly opinion she had of herself with that sublimest idea she had been\nenabled to form of God's infinite majesty, and that was that she could\nnow no longer present herself at the Eucharistic table to receive her\nJesus with that frequency with which she had been accustomed to partake\nof that heavenly bread, but was now, on the contrary, obliged to\nreceive Him lying on her miserable pallet.  But the holy soul supplied\nin ardent desire and in the intensest internal acts of adoration and\nlove for that external veneration which her bodily weakness rendered\nimpossible.  As her disease progressed, or, rather, as her sanctity\nincreased, so small was the quantity of food she consumed that it could\nnot be told how she was able to live, and therefore the nuns who were\nattending on her came to the conclusion that she was kept alive by the\nbread of angels.  Nor was their idea so far from the truth, for Rita\nherself had to confirm it when, on their pressing her to take some more\nnourishment, she replied: 'My soul, fixed to the sacred wounds of Jesus\nChrist, is fed with other food.'\n\nNow, it happened that whilst the saint was in this state, and not far\nfrom the end of her mortal life, a relative came to visit her, and\nafter passing some time in condoling with her and giving her comfort,\nwas about to go away.  Before her departure she asked Rita if she\nwanted anything, and said she would willingly do her a service.  'Yes,'\nsaid Rita.  'I beg you to go to the garden of my house as soon as you\nreach Rocca Porena, and pluck a rose there and bring it to me.'  It was\nthen the month of January, the time in which the greatest rigour of\nwinter is felt, especially in that valley, which is closed in on all\nsides by overhanging mountains, where the sun rises late and sets\nearly, and where at that season all nature is buried under snow and\nice.  At the strange request the woman did not know what to think\nexcept that Rita was wandering in her mind through the severity of her\nillness.  She pitied her, and went back to Rocca Porena.  When she\nreached home it happened that she went to the garden, either through\ncuriosity or because God so disposed it, and she saw, conspicuous\namidst the frozen bushes, a full-blown red rose.  At the sight she was\nseized by various feelings of wonder, joy, and devotion, and ran to\npluck the flower, with which she returned without delay to the convent\nof Cascia to deliver the wonderful gift to the saint.  Rita took it as\ncoming from the hands of her Divine Spouse, and with holy joy offered\nit to her sisters who were standing around.  They, too, were seized\nwith wonder and amazement, and joined with her in praising the goodness\nand omnipotence of God.\n\nAnother prodigious occurrence, not unlike that we have just related and\nnot less wonderful, happened very soon after.  The same woman who had\nbrought the flower to the saint was bidding her farewell on another\noccasion, and asked her again if she needed anything.  Rita thus\nanswered the charitable question: 'Since you are so kind, I beg that\nyou will go to the same garden, where you will find two figs, which you\nwill have the charity to bring me.'  This time the woman did not\nhesitate a moment, but as soon as she heard the words hurried home, and\nin a short time was in the garden mentioned.  There, on a leafless\ntree, she found the two ripe figs, which she plucked with renewed\nwonder and pleasure, and carried immediately to the sick nun.  At the\nsight of this second wonder Rita broke forth into new acts of gratitude\nand love to the Lord, in which her sisters joined.  The fame of these\nmiraculous events was spread throughout the neighbourhood, and wonder\nseized on all the people, and they conceived a great veneration for the\ndying saint, whom they clearly perceived to be beloved by God.\n\nThus compassed about with flowers and fruit, like the bride of the\nsacred Canticles,[1] Rita felt that she was languishing with love, and\nby this growing weaker, she eagerly desired to be free from the ties of\nthe body, and at last take flight to enjoy for all eternity her\nUncreated Good.  Her chaste sighs were not in vain, for her Divine\nSpouse Jesus, accompanied by the most holy Virgin, appeared to her to\nannounce the joyous tidings that in three days she should be taken from\nthe world and from pain, and received into Paradise to receive the\nreward due to her virtues and sufferings.  The vision disappeared, and\njoy inundated Rita's heart, and well was this known from that\nextraordinary and angelic serenity of her countenance which she\npreserved till her last breath, in spite of the pains and sorrows of\ndeath.  The nuns alone wept as they stood around her bed.  In these\nlast moments of hers, profoundly moved by her tranquillity and the\nwonders they had seen, they had come to know her better, and to\nappreciate more perfectly her extraordinary virtues.  In the midst of\nthese tears the saint turned to her dear sisters, humbly asked pardon\nof all of them for any offence she might have given them and for the\ntrouble she had caused, left them in remembrance of her beautiful words\nof peace, obedience, and piety, and then asked the blessing of the\nSuperior.  Her desolate sisters wanted, too, to get a blessing from her\nas a pledge of that charity with which she had always loved them, and\nwith which they besought that she would love and protect them when she\nwas in heaven.  Rita blessed them, tried to console them, and then had\nno thought for anything but eternity.\n\nOur heroine, it is true, was assured from above of the possession of\nfuture glory, yet she in no wise neglected to fortify herself with all\nthe aids and comforts with which our holy Mother Church prepares us for\nthe great passage.  Gathering, therefore, all the strength of her\nspirit, she expressed her desire that the Holy Viaticum should be\nbrought to her, and Extreme Unction administered.  She received these\nholy Sacraments with a fervour which cannot easily be imagined, much\nless described, and with these fresh pledges of grace, and with her\neyes turned towards the home of the Blessed, her soul took its flight\nthither, where she lives an immortal life filled with ineffable joy,\nthe reward of her heroic Virtues.  Her precious death took place during\nthe Pontificate of Calixtus III., in the year 1457, when she had\nattained the seventy-sixth year of her age and the forty-fourth of her\nreligious life, on the night of the 22nd of May, when Saturday was\nending, a day specially consecrated to the honour of the Virgin Mary,\nto whom she was always most devout, and towards the beginning of\nSunday, the day dedicated to the Lord and figurative of eternal repose.\n\n\n[1] Cant. ii. 5.\n\n\n\nEND OF PART II\n\n\n\n\nPart III\n\nRITA IN HEAVEN\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\n  WONDERFUL EVENTS THAT HAPPENED AT RITA'S\n  DEATH--BURIAL OF HER SACRED BODY\n\nIn describing Rita's mortal life, we judged it expedient to give from\ntime to time some idea of the trend of events and of the calamities of\nthe times in which she lived, and we have hopes that it will not be\ndispleasing to the reader nor outside the scope we proposed to\nourselves if we continue to follow the same plan now that we are come\nto speak of her immortal life in so far as it may be said to be visible\nin those works in which God willed to give glory to His servant even on\nearth.  For her, indeed, time was changed into changeless eternity, but\nthe world was, as ever, in its instability, and was perpetually\nchanging appearance.  The short-lived peace which had been established\nat the Council of Florence had once more fled from the distracted East,\nand Mahomet II., destined by God to punish those relapsing schismatics,\nhad at this time overturned the Empire of Constantinople, and was\nthreatening with ruin the newly-established Empire of Trebizond, as\nwell as other kingdoms.  It is true that in the year 1457--the year of\nRita's death--the infidel usurper was driven back out of Hungary and\nBelgrade, and had been defeated by the brave Scanderbeg in Albania, by\nCardinal de Aquileia on the \u00c6gean Sea, and by Uson Cassano near the\nconfines of Persia.  But these losses caused only a temporary check,\nand were but the last flattering hope of the hardened and perfidious\nGreeks.  Calixtus III. was then Pope, and from his Apostolic throne it\nwas his sad lot to see the heritage of Jesus Christ despoiled, and\ncould only weep over what he could not prevent.  The wise Pontiff\nstrained every effort to prevent still greater ruin, but the\neffeminacy, egoism, and rivalry of the Courts of Europe opposed his\nbrave purpose, and left open a free passage to the progress of the\nconqueror.  In the West the outlook was brighter for the Church and the\nworld, for affairs were directed by the Emperor Frederick III.,\nsurnamed the Peacemaker, and Pope Calixtus, whose great desire was to\nsee peace firmly established in Italy, from whence it had so long been\nbanished.  Indeed, it was only in the year before he ascended the Papal\nthrone that the first signs of reviving peace were seen in that\ntroubled peninsula.  It was through the means of a humble Augustinian\nfriar that in the end was obtained that peace which princes and\nmonarchs had in vain attempted to restore; for Fr. Simonetto of\nCamerino, a priest of extraordinary piety, is famous in history for\nbeing the pacificator of Italy.  Good morals and piety began to gain\nvigour, and brought consolation to the Church for the irreparable\nlosses it had sustained in the East.  The reigning houses also that\nwere least friendly to national concord, and which had not remained\nunstained by depravity, began again to give indications of sanctity.\nIn this very year of 1457, Fr. Gabriel Sforza, Archbishop of Milan,\nstyled the Blessed, passed to his heavenly reward, and a few months\nafter his death Blessed Christina Visconti followed him to the kingdom\nof heaven.  Like Rita, both of these were Augustinians.  The\nGovernments of the republics of Siena and of Genoa were the last to\nsuffer from the disasters of war, the former having been attacked by\nthe ambitious Picunino, and Genoa having been engaged with the maritime\nforces of Alphonsus, King of Naples; but even these wars had at last\ncome to an end.  Cascia, which still continued to be governed as a\nrepublic, in common with the other States was enjoying in prosperity\nthe fruits of peace, and was now about to acquire greater renown\nthrough the death of Rita, whose imperishable glory was soon to be\nproclaimed.\n\nScarcely, indeed, had she breathed her last when began a long series of\nprodigious events, which immediately spread her fame abroad.  The first\nof these to excite wonder was that at the moment of her death the nun\nwho had been her closest companion in life saw the soul of the saint\ntake its flight to heaven, accompanied by angels, in the garb of\nbrightness in which it had pleased God to clothe her.  The second\nwonder was that at that same moment the bell of the convent rang out,\ntolled by no visible agency, and the saint's cell was radiating with an\nunaccustomed splendour.  The sore on her forehead, too, which in life\nhad been most offensive, was now giving forth an odour of heavenly\nfragrance, and that wound, which had been an unsightly deformity, now\ntook on the appearance of a shining jewel.  Her body, which before had\nexhibited all the wasting effects of continual mortification, but was\nthe seat of a most pure soul and the temple of the Holy Ghost, was now\ntransformed and clothed with almost superhuman beauty.  In a word, not\nonly her soul, but her very body seemed as if it had been assumed into\nthe splendour of the saints.  At the manifestation of events so\nwonderful the nuns and the faithful who were present changed their\nsorrow into a holy joy, and ceased not to bless the Lord and recommend\nthemselves to Rita's patronage.  As the report of these prodigies\nspread about, the people flocked in crowds to see and to venerate that\nsacred body, and thus God was praised in the wonders He had worked, the\nvirtues of His saint were published, and in the hearts of many there\nsprang up the desire of imitating her example.  The obsequies were to\nbe solemnly celebrated on the following morning, and meanwhile the\ncrowds arriving from all the surrounding country were continually\nincreasing.  Amongst the others came a woman who was a near relative of\nRita, whose arm had been many years paralysed.  This woman approached\nthe sacred body, and, to relieve her feelings of love, sorrow, and\ndevotion, clasped it around the neck.  On the instant her withered arm\nsuddenly regained feeling and strength.  She began to cry out that a\nmiracle was wrought for her, and all the bystanders took up the cry of\n'A miracle! a miracle!' whilst she who was healed kissed again and\nagain the body of her deliverer, and returned thanks to God for His\ngreat mercy.  The body was brought from the cell into the ancient\nchapel, where it was quickly surrounded by a crush of impatient people,\nwho seemed as if they never could be satisfied with gazing on the\nsacred remains of the holy nun.  The last solemn offices were\ncelebrated, but the body had to be left visible for a long time to\nsatisfy the pious curiosity and devotion of the faithful.  At last it\nwas placed in a coffin of poplar, which was enclosed in another of\nwalnut wood, in order that one who was so honoured by God should\nreceive honourable sepulture.  This was but the beginning of Rita's\nrenown.  We shall see as we advance how God gave greater glory to His\nservant.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\n  MIRACLES WROUGHT BY GOD THROUGH RITA'S\n  INTERCESSION BEFORE HER BEATIFICATION\n\nThe primary object of miracles is to establish the Catholic religion,\nand this is the reason why the Son of God and His disciples performed\nso many miraculous works that filled the world with amazement and\ninvited men to embrace the faith.  Even when the kingdom of Christ had\nbeen established miracles did not altogether cease, but rather it\npleased God for His greater glory to raise up miracle workers in every\nage for the edification of the faithful, to place a more distinctive\nmark on His Church, and to confirm His followers in the faith.  A\nlittle before Rita's time there were chosen, amongst others, St.\nNicholas of Tolentine, St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Bernardine of Siena, St.\nFrancis of Paul to be famous ministers of His omnipotence and mercy.\nThen followed St. Rita, who, although during her life she did not\nperform marvels as did these Apostolic men, yet after her death became\ncelebrated, and is still celebrated throughout the whole world for the\nmany great miracles with which it pleased the Lord to publish the\nmerits of His beloved spouse.\n\nBut as St. John the Evangelist has said, speaking of our Lord, so very\nnumerous were the miracles He wrought that only a small proportion of\nthem is recorded in the Sacred Writings, we may say, preserving due\nproportion, much the same of Rita.  For not only have lapse of time and\ncarelessness deprived us of the memory of many of the miracles worked\nthrough her intercession, but even in the present, when nearly every\npart of the world is ringing with the fame of her great prodigies,\nauthentic testimony is often wanting, and sometimes we are at a loss\nfor a simple relation of the facts.  We must therefore perforce be\ncontented with recording a certain number of them taken from the\nprocess of her beatification, and we shall follow the order in which\nthey are related by those writers of her life who have preceded us.\nThe series of miracles of which we have authentic knowledge begins from\nthe third day after the saint's death.  We give it here in compendium.\n\nOn the 25th of the month of May in which St. Rita died a certain\nBaptist d'Angelo of Col Giacone, in the territory of Cascia, who had\ncompletely lost his sight, having heard of the miracles which God was\nworking through her intercession in those first days after her death,\nhad his faith quickly aroused, and with confidence recommended himself\nto her patronage, and in an instant his sight was restored.\n\nTwo days later a woman named Lucrezia di Paolo, from Col Forcella, a\nvillage also in the territory of Cascia, whose body was swollen and\ndoubled up through advanced years and owing to a sort of dropsy from\nwhich she suffered, went to where the saint's body was lying, and,\nhaving prayed there with strong faith, was enabled to return to her\nhome free from disease and in perfect health.\n\nOn the same day another woman named Frances, the wife of Antonio\nFucelli of Cascia, who had been deaf for five years, was praying before\nthe body of the saint in the presence of a multitude of people.  On a\nsudden she felt that her hearing was restored.  The truth of this\nmiracle is attested by the people who were present.\n\nTwo days later still a man named Salimbene d'Antonio, from\nPoggio-Primocaso, one of whose fingers had lost all power of motion and\nwas dried up for many years, went to pray that he might be cured, and\ntouched the saint's sacred body with his powerless finger; he, too, was\ninstantaneously cured, and went back to his home rejoicing.\n\nOn the last day of May a woman called Giacomuccia di Leonardo, from\nOcosce, a village quite close to Cascia, was miraculously cured of\ngrievous pains, from which she had been tormented for two years, and\nwhich had reduced her to a state of extreme weakness.  This grace was\ngranted to her after having prayed most fervently for eight days, at\nthe end of which her persevering faith was rewarded by her restoration\nto health.\n\nFrances di Giovanni, from Bisella, in Nursia, who was deaf and dumb\nfrom birth, was brought on the same day to visit the miraculous body of\nthe saint.  She ardently recommended herself to her patronage, and\nperformed the acts of devotion possible to a deaf mute.  Speech and\nhearing were thereupon suddenly granted to her.  The first words she\nuttered were 'Ave Maria,' a fact which amazed her parents and the\npeople who witnessed the miracle.\n\nStill another miracle was wrought by the omnipotence of God, through\nRita's intercession, before the end of that month of May.  A certain\nLucrezia, wife of Ser Paolo of Golforalla, who was all swollen with\ndropsy, and whose case the physicians judged incurable, had herself\nbrought before the saint's body, and there with the strongest\nconfidence begged that her heart's desire might be granted.  She, too,\nwas restored to health and strength.\n\nOn the 2nd of June in the same year a youth named Bernard, the son of\nMatteo Del-re, from Ocosce, who was suffering from the gravel and was\nin very great pain, was brought to where the saint's coffin was by his\nfather, who besought for him the pity of the saint, and was granted the\ngrace he prayed for.\n\nThe next day a man called Spirito d'Angelo, from Cascia, through the\nintercession of St. Rita, was cured of chronic sciatica, from which he\nhad suffered grievous pain for four years.\n\nFour days later a young girl from Rocca, in the territory of Nursia,\nwhose name was Maria d'Angelo, who had been deaf and dumb from birth,\nwent with her parents to do homage to the saint of Cascia, and, like\nFrances di Giovanni, she, too, obtained hearing and speech.  When this\nmiracle was made known the girl had to get into the pulpit to satisfy\nthe pious curiosity of the people, and there for the first time she\npronounced the sweet name of Mary and the names of other saints, and so\ngreat was the wonder of the people that a thanksgiving procession was\nformed, in which the clergy took part, and a sermon was preached by Fr.\nGiovanni Paoletti of Cascia.\n\nOn the 13th of the same month Francesco, son of Antonio Pasquali, of\nthe village of San Cipriano, in the district of Amatrice, who was also\na deaf mute, was brought by his father and others to Rita's glorious\ntomb, and departed thence with the full use of his senses, astonished\nat the novelty of his sensations and the greatness of the miracle.\n\nAnother miracle took place five days after in favour of Lucia di Sante\nLalli, from the town of S. Maria, in the territory of Nursia.  One of\nher eyes was entirely blind for fifteen years, and the other was nearly\nso.  She went, accompanied by her mother, to visit the holy body of the\nsaint in Cascia, and remained there praying for fifteen days, at the\nend of which, through her faith and the intercession of the saint, she\nregained her sight, as she had ardently desired.\n\nAfter describing the last-mentioned miracle there is a break in the\nancient records, and we read of no other miracles till thirty years\nlater.  Under the date of the 3rd of June, 1487, we find that Pietro di\nGiovanni of Paganelli, and his wife, a native of Nursia, made a vow to\nSt. Rita for the restoration to health of their son Pietro, who was so\ntongue-tied that he could not utter a word.  The saint consoled them,\nfor in a short time their son was in perfect health, with full use of\nspeech.\n\nA daughter of Gregorio d'Antonio of Col Giacone, who had lost the power\nof speech after a severe illness, recovered it after being brought to\nthe saint's tomb.  This fact is mentioned under the date of the 22nd of\nJune in the same year.\n\nAbout the same time Sante di Mariano of Rocca Porena, whilst playing\nbull, was thrown violently against one of his companions, who had a\nknife in his belt, and was accidentally so severely wounded in the\nventral region that the physicians despaired of curing him.  He had\nrecourse to the saint, and although he was not cured instantly, yet he\nimmediately began to improve, and ultimately he was restored to perfect\nhealth.\n\nOn the 18th of May, about two years afterwards, Angela, wife of\nDomenico Berardi of Logna, a town in the territory of Cascia, whose arm\nwas crippled and so diseased that it brought on feverish feelings every\nday, had recourse to the invisible virtue of that holy body, and was\ncompletely healed.\n\nFather Nicola Galli, who had been confessor of the nuns in the convent\nin which the saint lived, and who wrote her life, which to a great\nextent we are making use of in this chapter, and who declares that he\ntook his account of Rita's miracles from the process of her\nbeatification given him by the nuns, relates as the sixteenth of her\nmiracles that a certain Giovanni di Rocca Porena was restored from\ndeath to life through the merits of the saint, but he mentions no\ncircumstances.\n\nA woman named Fior di Pier Antonio had a son named Spirito, who\nsuffered from a sort of insanity, which doctors would call\n_lycanthropy_ (a species of insanity in which the patient imagines\nhimself to be a wolf), owing to which he was given to wandering through\nthe woods and mountains, and felt a tendency to hurl himself from high\nplaces.  His afflicted mother, seeing that all the remedies of science\nwere useless, had recourse to St. Rita, and was consoled by her son's\nbeing restored to health and his right mind.\n\nAbout the year 1491 a certain Vannetta, daughter-in-law of Ser Antonio\ndi Nardo, from the town of Fogliano, near Cascia, was suffering from so\ndangerous an affection of the throat that she could swallow neither\nfood nor drink, and therefore believed that she had reached the end of\nher days.  Once, on being awakened from a heavy sleep, which her\nfriends thought was the lethargy of death, she complained of being\ndeprived by them of the beautiful vision she had been enjoying.  To\ntheir questions about her vision she replied that she had seen St.\nRita, who had called to her and touched her throat with her finger and\ndisappeared.  It was found that the cure was not simply imaginary, but\nthat the girl was freed from her disease.\n\nAbout the same time a boy named Amico, the son of Antonio of Col\nForcella, who was suffering great pain from gravel, was recommended by\nhis mother to the powerful intercession of the saint, and her faith was\nrewarded by his instantaneous cure.\n\nIn the following year Giovan Marino, of Logna, was cured of a disease\ncalled _serpentina_, through which his whole body was paralysed, for it\npleased God to hear, through the intercession of Rita, the fervent\nprayers offered in his behalf by his aunt Donna Santa.\n\nTowards the end of the same year Pier Marino, son of Marino Bruchi of\nNursia, who had received two mortal wounds in a scuffle, had recourse\nto the patronage of Rita, and not in vain, for he was seen to get\nbetter, and through persevering prayer was soon restored to health.\n\nThree other miracles are described as having taken place about this\ntime through Rita's intercession.  The first was the healing of Donna\nSanta (perhaps the same as was mentioned before), daughter of Domenico\nof Logna, who was suffering from headaches, and tumours, and swelling\nof the throat.  She besought the saint to obtain her restoration to\nhealth, and vowed to send a florin as offering to her convent.  Rita\nheard her prayers, and became her advocate before the Giver of every\ngood gift, who instantly gave her back the health she prayed for.\n\nThe next was that wrought in favour of a certain woman named Giacoma,\nthe wife of Martino of S. Anatolia, in the territory of Cascia, who\nbroke her shoulder-blade and her thigh by falling from a height on a\nrock.  She was tortured by most violent pains, against which she could\nfind no better remedy than to have recourse to Rita, to whose convent\nshe vowed to present a half-florin.  Her prayers were heard, and she\nwas instantly cured.\n\nThe third of the cases, registered under date of the 18th of November,\nhappened thus: Antonio, the son of Giuliano and Gemma of Nursia, was\nlying mortally wounded and left for dead, having received fourteen\nwounds, one of which had almost severed his shoulder from his body.\nHis mother and his sister Maria determined to trust themselves to the\nhelp of heaven, and had recourse to the intercession of St. Rita.  They\ntherefore made a vow to visit her venerated body and to bring a waxen\nimage.  Hardly had they made the vow than the young man was cured of\nhis wounds.\n\nLucchessa, the wife of Giovan Marino of Collecurioso, now destroyed, in\nthe territory of Cascia, had been possessed by the devil for many days.\nShe was brought to Rita's grave, and there was delivered from that\nmolestation through the saint's intercession.  When this favour was\nconferred there were many present, religious and seculars, who also\nbore witness to the horrible yells uttered by the infernal spirit as it\nleft the body.\n\nIn 1494 Monica di Colantonio of Colle, in the district of Nursia, was\ncured of a fistula solely because her father, Domenico, had gone to\nCascia to honour the saint, to whose efficacious patronage he had\nrecommended himself.\n\nTowards the end of the same year, on the 16th of December, a man named\nGiovanni Andrea, son of Giovannuccio, from Atri, a town in the\nterritory of Cascia, came to Cascia to thank his protectress Rita, who,\nhe affirmed, had formerly delivered him from a serious illness, and had\nsaved him again from imminent danger of death when a chestnut-tree had\nfallen on him and threatened to crush him.\n\nTwo years later a certain Paolo, son of Giovanni, a native of\nCollecurioso, whose son Angelo was suffering torture from the gravel,\nmade a vow to bring his son to return thanks at the saint's tomb if he\nwere cured, and to have the miracle painted on a tablet.  His faith was\nrewarded by his son being cured.\n\nIn the same year Andrea d'Angelo, from Onelli, in the Cascia district,\nwas cured, through the intercession of the saint, from an illness by\nwhich he was confined to bed for ten months.\n\nIn 1501 a woman named Perna, wife of Marino di Aliena, who was\ntormented by evil spirits, was delivered from them by favour of the\nsaint, to whom she had had recourse.\n\nAt the same time Giovanni di Bartolomeo, from Roccatervi, in the\nneighbourhood of Cascia, who had cut a vein near his left instep eight\nyears before, and whose case was considered incurable, besought St.\nRita with fervent prayers to come to his aid.  When he perceived that\nhis prayers were heard, and that a cure impossible to human science had\nbeen effected, he made an offering on the 10th of June of a silver\ncrown to the church that guards the saint's body.\n\nPier Angelo, son of Pier Domenico, from the neighbourhood of Spoleto,\nhad fled in the year 1503 from that district to escape an epidemic that\nwas raging there.  When he thought the danger was past he returned, but\none of his daughters was seized by the malady.  The afflicted father\nbethought him of seeking the protection of the miracle-worker St. Rita.\nHe promised to visit her venerated tomb and to make an offering of four\ncarlins.  His faith was rewarded by his daughter's deliverance.\n\nVannuccio di Sante of Foligno, one of whose arms was withered, had\nrecourse to the saint to obtain the favour of being cured, and made a\nvow to offer the figure of an arm in wax.  The power of his arm was\nimmediately restored.  He determined thereupon to fulfil his vow on a\ncertain Sunday, but when the day came he changed his mind, and meant to\ngo to Nursia.  But he paid the penalty of his ungrateful fickleness,\nfor he was seized with such a pain in one of his feet that he could not\nwalk.  Thereupon he resolved to fulfil immediately his vow, and he\nadded a second one of bringing also the waxen figure of a foot.  He was\nrelieved of the pain, and hesitated no longer to fulfil his double vow.\nThis happened in 1506.\n\nIt happened about the year 1510 that a certain Messer Francesco of\nMonferrato, who was five years bedridden owing to gangrene of the\nthroat, saw St. Rita appear to him in a dream.  He paid no attention to\nthe vision, but the saint appeared to him a second and a third time.\nOn the third occasion she informed him who she was and whence, and\nexhorted him to go to her tomb; she then touched his throat, and he was\nrestored to health.  He arose from his bed cured, and set out for\nTuscany, and from thence he went to Rome, for he did not know where\nCascia was, where Rita was buried.  But in Rome he found a farmer from\nNursia, who gave him the information he needed, and when he arrived at\nCascia he made an offering of a box full of silver coins, had a\nprocession of thanksgiving celebrated, and on the occasion of it a\nsermon was preached by Fr. Ludovico of Cascia, a Franciscan.\n\nGiovan Angelo, the son of Leonardo, from Ocosce, in the district of\nCascia, was freed on the 26th of April, 1525, from an evil spirit by\nwhich he was obsessed, and to express his gratitude for the favour,\nobtained through Rita's intercession, made an offering of four carlins\nto the convent, a thousand wooden stakes for the vineyard, and his own\nservices as long as he lived.\n\nIn the same year and month another man obsessed by the devil, whose\nname was Bernardino, the son of Domenico Saccomadi, from the town of\nSan Giovanni, in the Cascia district, was delivered from the infernal\nenemy after being brought to visit the body of St. Rita, before which\npublic prayers were recited for his liberation.\n\nOn the 26th of December of the same year a son of Giovan Francesco of\nNardi, in the suburbs of Cascia, a child three years old, after a very\nserious illness, which lasted for thirteen days, was become quite\nblind, and could take no nourishment, and was, in fact, at the point of\ndeath.  The father went to Cascia to beg the intercession of St. Rita,\nand to his prayers were added those of the nuns, who also gave him a\nlittle piece of Rita's habit.  He returned home, and with firm faith\ntouched his son's eyes with the relic he had received, and invoked the\nname of Rita, and immediately it was seen that the grace he had sought\nhad been granted.  As a sign of gratitude he brought an offering of\neight florins' worth of articles to be used in the services of the\nsaint's church.\n\nA similar miracle happened towards the year 1535, in the case of\nConstantino, the son of Scolastica and Giacomo di Pietro Zocchi, from\nAgriano, in the district of Nursia.  He, too, was suffering from a\nmortal illness when his mother made a vow in his favour to St. Rita,\nand he was cured on the instant.  To fulfil her vow and testify her\ngratitude, Scolastica presented a vestment to the church on the 1st of\nJune.\n\nAbout the same time it also happened that a little girl of ten years,\ncalled Antonia, who was the daughter of Giovanni di Silvestro of Rocca\nPorena, fell into the river Corno, then very much swollen by floods,\nand was swept along in the strong current for nearly half a mile.\nBefore losing consciousness she offered herself to St. Rita, and the\nwaters bore her to the river bank as one returned to life from the dead.\n\nDonna Brigida, wife of the noble Marsiglio di Marino of Nursia, was\nalso the recipient of a singular favour from St. Rita in the year 1548.\nShe was lying ill in bed, despaired of by the physicians and near\ndeath.  A certain Girolamo di Giovanni, who occupied a room not far\nfrom where the sick woman was lying, twice heard a voice commanding her\nto make a vow to the saint.  At the second time of hearing he woke the\nservants, the vow was registered by the invalid, who instantly spoke.\nShe was cured without the application of other remedies, and the same\nday the little silver crown she vowed to send to Cascia was despatched.\n\nThe year after a certain Ferrantino di Benedetto of Collecurioso, in\nthe Cascia district, was so terrified by a phantom of the night that he\nfell into convulsions and became delirious.  St. Rita, to whom he had\nremembered to pray, appeared to him in one of his lucid intervals and\nadvised him to go to her tomb and pray there, and that he would there\nregain his health.  He went on St. James's Day, and although he was as\nill as usual whilst going, no sooner had he reached the blessed tomb\nthan he was cured in body and mind.\n\nNicola, the son of Francesco Cascianelli of Antrodoco, in October,\n1562, had recourse to the saint to heal him of a chronic illness,\npromising to make an offering of three crowns at her sepulchre.  He,\ntoo, was instantaneously cured.\n\nOn the last day of May, in the year 1563, there happened another\nnoteworthy miracle wrought in favour of Donna Cheava di Paolo, of the\nCastle of Uncciafora.  Two months before she had an apoplectic fit, and\nduring all the intervening time her tender mother could obtain no\nrelief for her, and was herself condemned to useless weeping, till she\ndetermined to make a vow to the saint.  After two days she had the\nhappiness of seeing her daughter restored to her former health.  On the\nvery day of the recovery the mother went to Cascia to perform her vow\nat Rita's tomb, and the assembled people celebrated the miracle with a\nprocession.\n\nFour years afterwards, on the 23rd of April, Angelina di Marco of\nPoggio-Primocaso was prostrate at the saint's tomb, returning thanks to\nher for having saved her nephew, who had been at the point of death\nafter falling down a precipice.\n\nMany other wonderful cures are recorded in the process of beatification\nwithout a date being mentioned.  We read, for example, that a woman\nfrom Monte Leone named Pazienza, who was obsessed by the devil, was\nfreed from her great misfortune on being brought to the tomb of the\nsaint; that Ristorio Sarsio from Amatrice, who was brought almost to\ndeath's door by pains in his sides, was cured whilst in the act of\nmaking a vow in the saint's honour; that a child of four\nyears--Giovanni Andrea, son of Fabiano Fortunati--who had fallen into a\nvessel of boiling water, and thereby lost sight and speech, as soon as\nhis mother had asked the saint's intercession for him, again spoke and\nrecovered sight, and in a short time was as well as ever; that a\ncertain Bernardino di Tiberio, who had become blind of an eye from a\nwound, was brought to the saint's tomb, and instantly regained the\nsight of his eye whilst the coffin was being uncovered; and that a\nwoman from Logna, who was returning from Cascia after being cured there\nmiraculously, suggested to another woman to make a vow to St. Rita in\norder that a daughter of hers who was blind might recover sight.  The\ndaughter promised St. Rita to become a nun in the Augustinian convent\nin Cascia, and her vision was immediately restored.  She was afterwards\nPrioress of the convent for thirty-five years.  Fr. Galli, who wrote\nthe saint's life, through fear of wearying his readers contented\nhimself with simply alluding to many other like miracles and wonderful\nfavours worked by St. Rita.  Most other writers of her life have\nfollowed his example, except that a few have given some little\nadditions.  We, too, shall imitate these older examples, and close our\nlist of miracles worked by St. Rita before her beatification.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nEFFICACY OF RELICS OF ST. RITA\n\nIt is quite certain that the power of working miracles belongs only to\nOmnipotence; nevertheless, the many wonderful works done at the tombs\nof the saints seem to indicate that in those holy places there breathes\nan air participated through that incommunicable virtue by means of\nwhich not only those sacred bodies, but everything that belongs to\nthem, co-operates in performing the wonderful works of God and in\ncelebrating and making known these wonders.  This is the same power\nthat first accompanied the shadow of St. Peter, as the Holy Spirit\nassures us it did,[1] and that afterwards, on the testimony of St.\nAugustine, was communicated to those renowned chains that were the\ninstruments of his generous confession and his guide to martyrdom.  The\nChurch's history supplies us with innumerable examples of cases in\nwhich similar virtue was annexed to relics of the saints and to objects\nconnected with the veneration of them, and in St. Rita's case we have a\nspecial confirmation of this fact.  And, to keep to our subject, the\ntruth of this assertion as regards St. Rita is witnessed by immemorial\nreport, by such examples being recorded in the process for her\nbeatification, and by proven cases, some of which we here record.\n\nBefore the saint's body was removed to its new resting-place--that is,\nbefore the year 1745--it was the long-established custom of the nuns to\ncover it with a new veil every year, the old one being divided into\nminute portions and distributed to the faithful to satisfy their\ndevotion.  'Many miracles were worked through them,' says Father Rabbi,\nwho cites the following case as an example:\n\nOn the 27th of April, 1652, twenty-four years after an office in honour\nof St. Rita had been granted, a fire broke out in the house of Giovanni\nPolidori in Narni, and soon spread to an alarming degree.  His wife\nChiara, seeing that human aid was of no avail in overcoming the\nincreasing flames, and recollecting that she had a little piece of the\nsaint's veil, hurriedly sent her daughter to the roof of a house that\nhad not yet taken fire to cast from there the piece of veil into the\nflames.  The daughter did as she was told, and for fear the relic,\nwhich was wrapped in a piece of paper, should not carry so far owing to\nits lightness, she tied it with a thread to a piece of mortar.  As soon\nas she had done so, she threw it, and the fire immediately ceased.\nThen Chiara, her family, and the others who were living in the house,\nwent directly to St. Augustine's Church to offer their thanks to God\nand His saint.  They found in the church the woman who had given the\npiece of veil to Chiara, and who was of even greater faith than her.\nChiara considered that the relic was burned, but the woman maintained\nthat it must have escaped the fire, for the instrument of the miracle\nought not to have become the food of the conquered flames, and told\nthem to go and look for it amidst the ashes.  They went, and Chiara\nsoon had reason to wonder at a second marvel, for she found the relic\njust as it had been when it was thrown into the flames, and neither the\npaper around it nor the string was in the least burned.  They then\nreturned to the church to renew their thanksgiving for the wonderful\nworks done in their favour.  The report of the occurrence was soon\nspread abroad, and a public account of it was printed on the 25th of\nthe following May.\n\nIt was also a pious custom of the nuns to distribute to the people the\ndust, the scrapings from the walls, and such things, of the saint's\ncell, and of the first coffin in which her sacred body had been placed\nand in which it had lain until 1745, and many marvellous results were\nobtained also from the employment of these things.  Amongst other\nwonders Father Rivarola relates this one: A servant of Cardinal\nFachinetti, Bishop of Spoleto, had a daughter who was blind of one eye,\nand whose other eye was so diseased that no hope could be entertained\nof curing it.  She recovered the sight of both eyes by the sole use of\nthat dust, which her mother cast into her eyes, an act which would\nnaturally have further injured her eyes if the dust had not been made\nsalutary by the Omnipotent, who, as we read in the Gospel,[2] gave\nsight to the blind by using clay.  A certain Francesco Armilli obtained\na similar grace by the same means.  Both of these afterwards went to\nCascia to give public testimony of the facts, and to return heartfelt\nfervent thanks to St. Rita.\n\nThere are authentic documents in existence to prove that marvellous\ncures were also wrought through the means of the oil of the lamp that\nburns before the receptacle wherein the saint's body is placed.  By\nmeans of that oil Alessandro Alessandrini of Amatrice, who had been\nstabbed in the side, and was almost at death's door, got better in a\nmoment of the violent pain he was suffering, and was afterwards\nentirely cured without the use of any other remedy, nor did any sign of\nthe wound remain on his body.\n\nGranita, the wife of Antonio Vanatelli of Atri, was cured in the same\nmanner of a large abscess on her side.  Signor Pompeo Benenati of\nCascia, who was a captain in Ferrara, was cured of a dangerous\nhemorrhage by the same marvellous remedy, and as a mark of his\ngratitude sent a silver lamp to the sepulchre of the saint of his\nnative town, his deliverer.  A son of Signora di Giovanni Andrea of\nNursia, whose feet, legs, and arms were so crippled that he could not\nstir from his bed, was healed by the virtue of that same oil, and was\nafterwards as able to go about as if he had never been ill.  Don Sante\nMazzuti, parish priest of Castel San Giorgio, near Cascia, who was\nattacked by the plague, which was devastating many parts of Italy in\nthe time of Pope Alexander VII., was also cured by applying the same\nwondrous oil.\n\nIt was also customary with the nuns, from the year 1500 at least, to\nbake little loaves on which they impress the image of St. Rita, and\nthese, after having placed them in presence of the sacred body, they\ndistribute in large quantities, and even send them to distant\ncountries.  Devout people who are seeking favours from the saint in\ntheir necessities, after reciting a _Pater Noster_ and _Hail Mary_, or\nsome other prayer, eat a little of that bread, and they drink a little\nwater, perhaps in memory or in honour of the very little food the saint\nwas accustomed to use, for bread and water were her usual sustenance.\nNow, as many authors testify, on the authority of the process of\nbeatification, and the witnesses cited for the canonization confirm\nthem, the sick have often found this bread a very efficacious remedy in\ntheir illnesses, and especially those suffering fever.  Moreover, in\ncases of storm by sea or land, it is a pious practice in some places to\nthrow a bit of the bread towards the sky or into the sea whilst\nreciting a prayer to the saint, and it has often been observed that\nthereupon calm and tranquillity succeeded.  It is, in fact, related\nthat many sailors have been thereby delivered from shipwreck, and,\namongst others, Pompeo Martini of Cascia and his companions whilst they\nwere on a voyage to Sicily.  They tell, too, that in time of pestilence\nmany were either preserved from infection by using this bread, or else\nregained their lost health.\n\nWith regard to this matter, there is one fact at least which we ought\nnot to pass over in silence.  We have already made mention of that\ncontagious disease which was rife in the year 1656, to the great loss\nof many Italian cities, and which brought desolation to Rome itself.\nThere lived in Rome at that time a girl of about twelve years of age,\ndaughter of an innkeeper, whose house was near the Church of St. Blase,\nwhich had been dedicated about that time to St. Rita.  The little girl,\nby reason of the great devotion which she had towards the saint, was\naccustomed to make use of these little loaves.  It happened that whilst\nshe was sleeping one night with her two aunts they were both\nunexpectedly attacked by the pestilence, and both of them died that\nnight whilst she was asleep.  When she awoke she was so frightened by\nwhat had happened that she fell off into a faint so deep that she, too,\nwas thought to be dead, and she was put with the two corpses on a car\nand carried to the cemetery of St. Paul that had been arranged for\nthose who died of that disease.  When they were removing the bodies\nfrom the car she was found to be alive and conscious, and was carried\nback to her home amidst the astonishment and joy of all who were\npresent.  When she was asked at home how it was that she was alive, she\nanswered, 'I do not know, except that when I awoke and saw that I was\nlying between two dead bodies I said, \"Blessed Rita, help me.\"'  Now,\nlet us ask how could a person of tender years, after being so long\nbetween two persons just then dead of the plague, escape the contagion\nwithout the special favour of heaven, or of that saint who had been the\nspecial protector of her devout client?  How admirable, indeed, is God\nin His saints!\n\n\n[1] Acts v. 15.\n\n[2] John ix. 6.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nMARVELS OF ST. RITA'S SEPULCHRE\n\nIt was the Almighty's will that the body of the saint, born of a mother\nso long barren, visited by the wonderful bees, miraculously brought\ninto the convent, marked by a wound from a thorn of the Crucified One,\nand in death crowned with splendour and clothed with a beauty almost\nheavenly, should also be glorified in a singular manner after death.\nAnd so it has remained for several centuries without showing the least\nsign of decay, and may be seen even to the present day miraculously\npreserved.  Before the year 1628--that is, for a space of 171\nyears--its eyes were always seen to be closed, and so they appear in\npictures taken before that date; but in that year there was a tumult\nexcited in the church by an insignificant cause on a day on which\nceremonies more solemn than usual were being observed to celebrate the\ngranting of an Office in the saint's honour, and on that occasion the\neyes of the saint were seen to open, to the great amazement of all\npresent.  The scandalous conduct of those who caused the tumult, and\nthrough passion violated the laws of charity and the sanctity of the\nholy place, seems to have awakened that venerable body from its long\nrepose; for it raised itself aloft out of its resting-place, whilst a\nperfume as from Paradise filled the church, its eyes opened, and thus\nstruck terror into the hearts of the brawlers, and filled them with\npenitence for their deeds, so that the sacred offices were finished in\npeace.\n\nThe scene we have described calls us to consider a second prodigy, that\nof the odour which is often observed in the vicinity of the saint's\nbody--an odour of unsurpassed sweetness, which invites to devotion and\nbrings spiritual comfort and consolation.  It lasts sometimes for a\nconsiderable period, sometimes is very transient; it diffuses itself to\na great distance at times, or is only apparent in the vicinity of the\nbody, and at different times has different degrees of pleasantness.\nThis, which we might call an odour of Paradise, is sometimes so widely\ndiffused as to be noticeable not only in the church where the body is\npreserved and in the adjacent convent, but also in the neighbouring\nhouses and in the streets, and it is wonderful that it has never seemed\nunpleasant to anyone, but, on the contrary, has brought spiritual\nconsolation, and excited the devotion of those who have had the\nhappiness of experiencing it.\n\nThere are many documents in existence which give the fullest testimony\nregarding this wonderful odour, and notably the processes of St. Rita's\ncanonization, which put beyond all doubt the fact that it is really\nsupernatural, for neither was Rita's body ever embalmed, as we have\nsaid, nor were any spices or other odoriferous substances ever placed\neither within or near the receptacle wherein it lies.\n\nMoreover, it is an ancient tradition in Cascia, which is confirmed also\nby the writers of her life and by the processes of beatification and\ncanonization, that on the occasions of the triduums that are accustomed\nto be offered at the altar of the saint for the sick who have recourse\nto her, it is not hard to discover whether they are going to get back\nhealth or are going to die; for a sweeter perfume is given forth when\nthe object of prayer is to be granted, whereas an odour somewhat like\nthat of incense, or the absence of odour altogether, is an indication\nof death.  Stranger still, the same wonderful fragrance has been\nexperienced even in distant countries, when extraordinary graces have\nbeen obtained by the intercession and through the invocation of St.\nRita.  So the constant tradition affirms, and the processes of\ncanonization confirm tradition in this point.  Fr. Rabbi quotes a\nspecific case in proof of this belief.  A medical doctor, Signor\nAndrea, came from Sinigaglia to Cascia with his wife Violante to thank\nthe saint for her intercession and to present a silver votive offering\nfor the healing of their son, who had been cured of a mortal illness.\nThe healing of their son had been signified to them a little before\nthey came to Cascia by the same wonderful fragrance.  These sweet\nodours are also manifest, not to mention many other occasions, whenever\nthe Bishop of Spoleto or the Augustinian Provincial come to hold their\nusual visitations.\n\nAnother fact calculated to cause still greater surprise is that Rita's\nbody has been seen to raise itself in its coffin from the bottom of\nthat receptacle up to the grating on its top, especially during the\ntime of the Provincial's visitation.  The same wonderful occurrence has\nalso been remarked during the visitations of the Bishops of Spoleto in\nthe convent, as if the saint thereby wished to renew her homage to her\nepiscopal Superior.  On these occasions the motion of the body is not\nalways the same.  Sometimes it has been remarked to be much slower than\nat other times, and it has on occasions been seen to raise itself for a\nmoment and then sink back again into its usual place.  On many other\noccasions besides at times of visitation this spontaneous raising of\nthe body has been noticed.  In order not to make so seemingly\nincredible a statement without sufficient evidence, we transcribe a\ndeposition sworn by some of the most prominent people in the town of\nCascia.\n\n\n\nNOTE TO CHAPTER IV\n\n_In the Name of God.  Amen._\n\nOn Saturday the 16th May, 1682, in the church called anciently St. Mary\nMagdalen's, but now called B. Rita's, we the undersigned, of the\nterritory of Cascia, diocese of Spoleto, by means of our oath, etc., in\nthe presence of me a notary and Chancellor forane of the bishop of the\nterritory of Cascia, give full and undoubted testimony, etc., for the\ntruth, and not otherwise, etc., that at the present the blessed body of\nour B. Rita is entire, uncorrupted, with its flesh white, without any\nstain of corruption, with its eyes open, and especially the left, which\nis seen to be more open than the right, and with the eyelids separated,\nand with the mouth somewhat opened, in which are seen and very clearly\ndistinguished the white teeth, the hands likewise white, etc.\n\nSimilarly have been observed by us, and recognised, the garments and\nthe veils, that she has on her head, which are the same that she wore\nwhen she was alive, and with them was the blessed body placed and\narranged in the same coffin, where at present she is found, as by\nrelation and continued ancient tradition of the nuns of this convent,\nwhich garments and veils have been found to be sound, entire, and not\ncorrupted by moths, nor by time, these garments appearing, as the veils\nalso, as if they were worn at the present time by a living person.\n\nSimilarly we attest as above, that we have felt many times an odour and\na fragrance wonderful and of Paradise, without being able to say what\nkind of odour it is, and this sometimes has been observed in a manner\nthat it was felt outside the church.  And by much more is this odour\nmarvellous inasmuch as her body was not embalmed, or opened, but placed\nin the coffin where it is found, with all the internal portions not\nseparated, nor divided from the body.\n\nSimilarly we fully testify as above, that we have many times observed\nthat her blessed body had raised itself from the place where ordinarily\nit lies up to the top of the little grating which is above the said\ncoffin, where reposes the same blessed body, and especially this\nhappens on the occurrence of her feast, and when she has worked some\nmiracle, as happened in the year 1628 for the first time, when was\ncelebrated the feast of her beatification, of which appears authentic\ntestimony made under date 13 June, 1660, by deed of Signor Giuseppe\nBenenati, native of Montefalco, with the legal form of this public\noffice, and so much we say and attest for the truth, etc., not only,\netc., but in every other better way, etc.\n\nI Carlo Giudici, Vice-Governor of Cascia, was present, and affirm as\nabove with my own hand.\n\nI Raffaele Cittadoni, Archpriest of the collegiate church of said\nplace, was present and affirm, etc.\n\nI Dionigi Panfili, Vic. forane of Cascia, was present and affirm, etc.\n\nI Ortensio Martini, Canon of the collegiate church of said territory,\nwas present and affirm, etc.\n\nI Antonio Frenfenelli, Canon of the collegiate church of said\nterritory, was present and affirm, etc.\n\nI Cerulino Berardi, Captain of the company of the cuirassiers of said\nplace, was present and affirm, etc.\n\nI Angelo Graziani, Captain of the infantry of Cascia, was present and\naffirm, etc.\n\nI Alessio Martini, notary public of Cascia, was present and affirm, etc.\n\nI Giovanni Graziani of Cascia was present and affirm, etc.\n\nI Giovanni Battista Leonetti of Cascia was present, etc.\n\n\n_In the Name of God.  Amen._\n\nIn the year of our Lord 1682, the fifth declaration, on the 28th day of\nthe month of May, 6th year of the Pontificate of Innocent XI., Pope by\nDivine Providence, I Petrus Gentilis of Tutia in Cascia, of the diocese\nof Spoleto, by public Apostolic authority notary, etc.\n\nL+S.\n\n\n_The Consuls of the Renowned Territory of Cascia._\n\nTo all, etc.  The aforesaid D. Petrus Gentilis and our other\nfellow-citizens are such as they describe themselves in their public\nand private declarations, and in this the usual and due forms were\nobserved, and in the present matter undoubted faith is to be given\nthem, etc., and therefore we have given these at Cascia from the\nConsular Palace this last day of May, 1682.\n\nL+S.\n\nDOMINICUS DE LANCELLOTTIS,\n    _Canc. Secr._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nIMMEMORIAL WORSHIP OF ST. RITA\n\nIt had been provided by the sapient Pontiff Alexander III. three\ncenturies before Rita's death that no one, however remarkable for\nholiness of life, and dying in the fame of sanctity, should receive\npublic and ecclesiastical worship, unless after the approbation of the\nHoly Apostolic See.  But it must be admitted that Rita's sanctity and\nmiracles had more effect than any decree that interfered with the\ndevotion of so many, and, indeed, the decree was unknown to most of\nthem.  Hardly was Rita dead than there was a great concourse of the\npeople of Cascia gathered at the feet of the sacred body, with hands\nraised in veneration and entreaty, beseeching the favour of their new\nprotectress.  The constant and wonderful works which it then pleased\nGod to perform to the advantage of those faithful people justified\ntheir confidence, and served to augment their fervour and at the same\ntime the veneration and glory of the saint.  Following the example of\nthe people of Cascia, and incited by the fame of Rita's miracles, the\npeoples of other places, near and far, hastened to offer her their\nreligious homage also, in order to become participants in her favours,\nor to make votive offerings, or to leave memorials of graces received.\nAs a consequence, lamps and candles were soon burning around her\nvenerated tomb; her picture became honoured, and many votive tablets\nand gifts in ever-increasing numbers were offered.  Hence, also, devout\nprocessions began to be celebrated on the occasions of the more\nextraordinary miracles, and hence her feast began to be kept on the\nanniversary day of her death, or, rather, of her birth to immortal life.\n\nThis singular devotion to the saint never declined; it rather acquired\ngreater vigour and wider bounds as years went on.  The processions took\nplace only in Cascia in the beginning, but in the course of time they\nbegan to be held by the faithful of the neighbouring towns and\nvillages, who had begun to invoke, as they still invoke, the favour of\ntheir common advocate.  These pious demonstrations of public and solemn\nveneration are usually celebrated about the time of her feast, and are\nalways accompanied by pious offerings.  The feast itself, which at\nfirst used to be observed in an ordinary way, came to be celebrated\neven magnificently when the devotion increased, and to be regarded as a\nholiday of obligation.  The Offices of the Church, which were attended\nby great crowds of people, many of them from distant places, were made\nmore impressive by the aid of the choicest music and the rich\ndecoration of the church.  But what has ever caused the greatest\nedification in connection with this festival was to see the number of\nstrangers, and especially women, who came on pilgrimage in bare feet\nand humble attire.\n\nFrom that period the convent and church, which were formerly known as\nSt. Mary Magdalen's, came, in a beautiful way, to be called, as they\nare so called at present, by the title of St. Rita.  For the pilgrims,\nas they approached the goal of their journey, had no other care than to\nfind out where the convent of St. Rita was, and on their return were\nused to say that they had been in the country and in the Church of St.\nRita.  Hence that manner of speaking, which has prevailed from an early\ndate, has finally succeeded in giving its fixed name to that venerated\nshrine.\n\nIt is also deserving of notice here that the custom of calling her the\nBlessed, which had been introduced even during the century after her\ndeath, in a short time became public and general.  About eight years\nafter her most glorious death the learned Cardinal Girolamo Seripando\nhad already placed Rita on his list of the Saints and Blesseds of the\nAugustinian Order; Panfilo, Crusenio, Gelsomini, and Ferrario had in\ntheir works already confirmed these titles and honours; the\nFathers-General of the Order were already accustomed in their official\ndocuments and letters patent to style her either by the title of\nBlessed or that of Saint, and distinguished her convent by the same\ntitle.  In a word, the general body of the faithful had already\nbeatified her long before the Vicar of Jesus Christ had her name\ninserted in the Roman Martyrology or had granted an Office in her\nhonour.  Now, if the worship given to Rita was so great before it was\nallowed by the Church to honour her publicly, we may imagine how much\nit was increased when the decree of the Supreme Head of the Church, who\ncould do no less than add his voice to the general chorus of praise,\nset his seal and approval on it.  Religious veneration to the famous\nRita then speedily spread throughout the whole earth, and together with\nthe people, Kings, Cardinals, Prelates, and personages of the greatest\ndistinction, bent their knees in devotion before the humble servant of\nGod, and deemed themselves happy in her patronage.  Amongst the\ncountries remarkable for devotion to her, the kingdoms of Spain and\nPortugal were pre-eminent, both in their European possessions and their\nvast colonies in the Western world; for throughout them all the name of\nRita was glorious, and their monarchs gave the most edifying examples\nof piety and munificence.  And it was in these Catholic dominions that,\nowing to the very many great miracles she wrought, she began to be\nknown by the title of '_the Saint of the Impossible_,' and in them hard\nto find a church which has not an altar dedicated to her honour.  So\nmuch was her veneration extended that the inhabitants of the city of\nSt. Sebastian, in Brazil, made a supplication to Pope Benedict XIII. to\nobtain the extraordinary faculty of consecrating a church under the\ninvocation of B. Rita, and when the faculty had been granted their\npious intention was soon carried into effect.  Seventy years before\nthat Monsignor Giuseppe Cruciani of Cascia, chamberlain of Pope\nAlexander VII., had obtained possession of the Church of St. Blase in\nRome, with the intention of rededicating it to B. Rita, and to-day we\nfind it so dedicated, and it has become the church proper to the people\nof Cascia in Rome.  Still earlier, and immediately after her\nbeatification, Monsignor Fausto Poli, himself a native of Cascia, who\nwas then Maggiordomo to Pope Urban VIII., and afterwards became\nCardinal and Bishop of Orvieto, acquired possession of the house in\nwhich the saint lived during her married life, and at his own expense\nhad it converted into a little chapel; and so it remains to the\npresent, and in it is preserved as a relic the mantle she wore in the\nworld.\n\nWe must not pass over in silence a noteworthy fact recorded by some\nbiographers of the saint, which is confirmed by a tradition in Rocca\nPorena, and sworn to in a deposition included in the first process.  It\nis this: The saint's room received its light whilst she dwelt in it,\nand until it was changed into a chapel, from a little window, or,\nrather, aperture, in the roof, and there, as is piously believed, the\nangels used to appear who came to comfort her in her sorrows.  When she\nentered the convent others dwelt there until the time of her\nbeatification.  Her successors in the house--and amongst them was a\npriest, Don Diamante di Pier Felice, who was examined as a witness in\nthe first process--tried to close the aperture; but all their efforts\nwere fruitless, for as often as they closed it they found it opened\nagain, and it was, moreover, observed that through that opening neither\nrain nor snow ever entered.\n\nThe convent cell, too, which Rita sanctified by so many years of her\npresence, by her profound meditations, and by the pitiless scourging of\nher body, and where the two coffins in which she was first buried are\nat present preserved, began to be held in veneration from an early\nperiod and to be looked upon as a private oratory.  In brief, it is an\nundoubted fact that the religious honours shown to our saint began from\nthe very time of her death, and as time went on they increased without\nany interruption and became more distinguished, till veneration to Rita\nwas spread in a singular manner throughout the whole Catholic world.\nThus are the humble exalted by God, and thus are the just in the\neverlasting memory of the ages.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nSOLEMN BEATIFICATION OF RITA\n\nA period of one hundred and seventy years had passed since Rita went to\nlive crowned with glory in the kingdom of the blessed, where there is\nno change of years or of things, and from whence she was regarding with\ncompassionate eyes the ever-changing vicissitudes of this valley of\ntears.  In that interval between Rita's death and her solemn\nbeatification the world had changed a hundred times its form and\nappearance.  Convulsions of nature, ruling passions, kingdoms ceasing\nto be, new Governments, dominions extended, fires of war enkindled,\nextinguished, and enkindled again, heresies ever variable, now\nspreading themselves, now kept within bounds, councils assembled,\nApostolic enterprises, and the barque of Peter always safe amid the\nshocks of tempests--these are the things that make up the long history\nof that time, and, indeed, of every epoch.\n\nHowever, at the time in which the honours of beatification were being\nprepared for Rita, the world and the Church were enduring only minor\nafflictions, and the aspect of affairs would have been still more\nserene but that the question of the succession to the extinct House of\nMantua was giving rise to some hostile movements in Italy, and that the\nrebellious Calvinists were causing civil discord in France.  Still,\ncompared with the past, those were times of peace, of gentleness, and\nof religion.  In the East, in fact, the infidel Amurath IV., sunk in\ndebauchery, had lost the taste for war and conquest.  The Emperor\nFrederick V., in the West, was keeping the heretics in subjection and\npreparing the way to restore to the Church the rights and property they\nhad usurped.  Italy had no longer to tolerate those wandering troops of\narmed men of which we have elsewhere spoken, who, however they may have\nbargained to bring help, were much more accustomed to bring ruin and\nmourning in their train; nor was there that multiplicity of\nGovernments, each as ambitious and tyrannical as it was insignificant.\nCascia, too, although fallen from its primitive splendour, was yet at\npeace, as was the rest of the Pontifical dominions.\n\nThe arts were flourishing and gaining new lustre in this time of\ntranquillity.  But what is of most importance is good order, religious\nand moral, and the Council of Trent had brought back order into the\nbosom of Christianity, and there it continued to rule.\n\nAt that time the chair of Peter was occupied by Urban VIII., whose\nvirtue, learning, and illustrious enterprises have made his name\nimmortal.  Before ascending the Papal throne he had governed the Church\nof Spoleto with great edification and splendid success, and there he\nhad every facility for inquiring into Rita's virtues and miracles, and\nthe antiquity and fame of the veneration paid to her.  God afterwards\nso disposed it that he should take upon himself the government of the\nUniversal Church, and should co-operate in the fulness of power in\nexalting our saint.  It is true that she had already been beatified by\nthe people from the time of her death, but in strict truth and in\naccordance with the sacred Canons, it did not belong, nor does it\nbelong, to the people to declare anyone saint or blessed, for the\noracle of the Apostolic See is needed.  For Jesus Christ alone\nsanctifies in the Church triumphant, as He teaches in the Book of\nLeviticus, where He says, 'I am the Lord who sanctifies them,' and so\nin the Church militant it is the prerogative of His Vicar on earth, the\nRoman Pontiff, to set the seal of his approval on sanctification and\npublish it to the world.\n\nNever was there a more favourable opportunity than that which then\npresented itself, when the Papal throne was occupied by a Pope who had\nbeen himself a witness of the devotion with which the faithful flocked\nto Rita's tomb and of the ever-increasing veneration in which she was\nheld; and therefore the Augustinian fathers, the nuns, and the Council\nof Cascia, determined to unite their influence with that of Monsignor\nFausto Poli and other distinguished persons, amongst whom was\npre-eminent the Lady Costanza Barberini, the Pope's sister-in-law, in\nsupplicating him graciously to proceed to the anxiously desired\nbeatification of Rita.  Their petitions were sufficient for the Pope,\nwho ordered the Sacred Congregation of Rites to set about the affair.\nThe Congregation committed to the Bishop of Spoleto the task of\ninvestigating into the fame of the sanctity, the virtues, and miracles\nof the saint, and instructed him to prepare what is called the\ninformative process.\n\nOn the 16th of October, 1626, the legal inquiry was therefore begun,\nand in due time brought to a happy conclusion.  In the month of March\nof the following year the results of the Bishop of Spoleto's\ninvestigation were submitted to a rigorous examination by the Sacred\nCongregation and approved of.  The Cardinals of that Congregation\ndelivered the canonical relation of the investigation and its issue to\nthe Pope, who was rejoiced with the success of their labours.\nThereupon, by a Special Brief of the 2nd of October, 1627, he granted\nleave to the whole Augustinian Order and the Diocese of Spoleto to\nrecite the Office and celebrate Mass in honour of B. Rita, and this\nprivilege was extended four months later by a Brief of the 4th of\nFebruary, 1628, at the instance of the Father-General of the Order, to\nall priests celebrating Mass in any church of the Order, or of the\nDiocese of Spoleto, on the day of Rita's feast.  The joy of the\nAugustinian Order and of Spoleto for so sovereign and gracious a\nconcession may not be described.  But the solemn beatification was not\npromulgated until the 16th of July, 1628, when the religious ceremony\nwas celebrated in the Church of St. Augustine in Rome in the presence\nof twenty-two Cardinals and a great number of other prelates.  We make\nno mention of the splendid festivals organized in honour of the\nillustrious Blessed Rita, of the panegyrics preached, of the poetical\ncompositions with which her virtues and miracles were celebrated.  The\ndevout clients of Rita vied with one another in defraying the expenses\nof these pious festivities, but the most distinguished for his\nliberality was Cardinal Antonio Barberini, the nephew of the reigning\nPope.\n\nThe pomp of the ecclesiastical functions was renewed in all the\nchurches of the Order, but the people of Cascia and the nuns of Rita's\nconvent rightly determined that their celebrations more than any other\nshould be remarkable for magnificence.  The joyful pealing of the\nbells, which continued for several days and nights; the bonfires on the\nhill-tops that illuminated the whole country around; the silken\nhangings and rich ornaments that decorated the church within and\nwithout; the new paintings representing Rita's glorious deeds and her\nmiracles; the solemn procession in which all the clergy, secular and\nregular, and all the confraternities of the town and district took\npart, bearing in triumph the banner of the blessed one; the band of\nchildren dressed to represent angels that accompanied it; the many wax\ntorches and gifts; the enormous concourse of the faithful, many of them\nfrom distant places; the solemn religious functions; the sacred plays\nand representations; and other like pomps, all publicly testified the\ncommon applause and universal joy.\n\nEven the body of the saint seemed as if, on so glorious a day, it\nwished to add to the splendour and gladness of the extraordinary\nfestivity; for, after the many years that had passed since Rita's\ndeath, it opened its eyes, as if to take pleasure from the solemn feast\nand general rejoicing, and at the same time to appease that momentary\ntumult of which we have already spoken.  Then, too, the church was\nfilled with that sweet odour we have described, and the sacred body\nraised itself to the height of the grating at the top of its\nresting-place.  And, lest anything should be left to mar the\ntranquillity of that happy day, she imposed silence on the demons by\nthen liberating from their influence two women--one from Spoleto and\nthe other from Sinigaglia--who had been obsessed.  But all that we have\nhitherto narrated was only accidental honour, and but a shadow of the\nimmortal glory which Rita enjoys in heaven.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nMIRACLES WORKED BY RITA AFTER HER BEATIFICATION\n\nIt is related in the holy Gospels that once when the Saviour was going\nto Jerusalem, as He entered into a certain town He saw ten lepers\ncoming to meet Him, who began to shout from afar off, 'Jesus, have\nmercy on us,' and that all of them were miraculously healed by Him, but\nonly one fulfilled the duty of gratitude by publicly giving glory to\nGod and going back to give thanks to his Divine Benefactor.\n\nWe are forced to think that something similar must have been the case\nwith those who have received extraordinary favours and graces through\nthe invocation and protection of Rita.  For, on the one hand, the\nconstant appeals of the faithful for her intercession, the numerous\ntriduums and novenas which the sick cause to be celebrated in many\nplaces in order to be cured of their diseases, and the fame which is\nspread throughout the earth of the benefits she has conferred and the\nmiracles she has worked, show with sufficient clearness the truth of\nthem and their frequency.  But, on the other hand, there are few who\ngive full praise to God by publishing the wonderful works He has done\nin honour of His beloved, or, at most, they content themselves with\nhanging a tablet or votive offering on her altars.  The present author,\ntoo, may perhaps be not altogether free from fault, for he confesses in\nhis nothingness that he has neither sufficient zeal, nor correspondence\nsufficiently wide, to enable him to know all the facts.  Nevertheless,\nwe shall for the last time, for the glory of God and of Rita, relate a\nfew of the more striking miracles we have been able to gather, and\nwhich seem best authenticated.\n\nWhen we were speaking of the marvels done through such relics of the\nsaint as the portions of the veil or by the use of the little loaves,\nwe took occasion to mention some miracles that took place after the\ntime of her beatification, and now, in order to avoid repetition and to\npass over what is hidden in the obscurity of a period long past, we\nshall confine our attention to the century in which the cause of her\ncanonization was resumed.\n\nA youth of fifteen years, by name Francesco Cavalieri of Cascia, was in\nthe year 1746 confined to his bed by gangrene of the leg, which had\nbroken out in five different places, and was so bad that the surgeons\nhad resolved to amputate the limb.  His father thereupon made a vow to\nthe saint, who heard his prayer, and deigned to appear to the sick\nyouth, first in the silence of the night, and again at dawn, telling\nhim to get up and go to her church.  He went as told by the saint, and\nwas restored to perfect health.\n\nSister Chiara Isabella Garofili, professed nun of the convent of\nCascia, was twice cured through the saint's intercession in ways that\nwere certainly more than natural.  The first case happened in 1775,\nwhen she had been suffering for eight years from a complication of\ndiseases, of which the description would be long, and which had then\nbecome incurable.  St. Rita appeared to her in a dream, telling her to\nget up--that she was cured.  When she awoke she found that she had been\nrestored again to health.  The second case occurred in 1786, in which\nyear Sister Chiara's right arm unexpectedly lost all power of motion,\nand she was also deprived of speech.  She tried several medical\nremedies without avail, and ultimately abandoned their use, and put all\nher confidence in the help of Rita alone.  Her trust was rewarded, for\nthen, to the surprise of the doctor and of the community, she found\nherself well once more.  Yet the impediment in speech still remained to\nsome extent; but she went to the saint's tomb accompanied by her\nsisters in religion, and the Superior anointed her tongue with oil from\nthe lamp that was burning there, and in an instant her cure was\nperfected.  This fact is confirmed by the legal testimony of the\ndoctor, Laurenti.\n\nDuring the year 1777 Giovanni Graziano of Poggiodomo, in the district\nof Cascia, fell from his horse, and was dragged for a considerable\ndistance along the road, receiving a number of bruises and lacerations;\nbut as soon as he invoked St. Rita she appeared to him, and restored\nhim to his former health and strength.\n\nAnother miraculous recovery, which has been authenticated in legal\nform, was that of Sister Vittoria Teresa Bargagnati, which took place\nin 1781, when she was a novice in the convent of St. Teresa in Terni.\nHer malady was that she could retain no food in her stomach.  She had\nin consequence been confined to bed for several months, and seemed at\nthe last extremity.  In this state, seeing that all the resources of\nmedical science were of no avail, she resolved to have recourse to more\neffective aid, the intercession of St. Rita.  Animated, then, by that\nlively faith which is able even to move mountains, she applied to her\nstomach a picture of her saintly advocate, and immediately after rose\nfrom her bed, went to the refectory, and ate the same food as the\nothers, nor did she ever after experience any trace of her malady.\n\nThere is a still more marvellous recovery, which is also proved and\nconfirmed by legal testimony--that of Rosa Mazzi, a young lady of\nCittei di Castello, who was afterwards Sister Anna Rita of the\nAugustinian convent of St. Maria Maddalena in Spello.  In the year 1780\nshe began to suffer from pains, difficulty of breathing, and vomitings\nof copious quantities of blood, and afterwards from inflammatory fevers\nand ischury, so that in two years she was reduced almost to the point\nof death.  In this desperate crisis her confessor, who was attending\nher as a dying person, told her of the miracle we have just related,\nwhich had recently happened in Terni, and encouraged her to have equal\nconfidence.  She determined to make a devout triduum to the saint.  The\ntriduum was hardly finished when Rosa felt herself well again, rose\nfrom her bed, and continued to be even haler and stronger than she had\nbeen before her long and mortal illness.  This wonderful miracle\noccurred on February 6, 1783.\n\nSignora Rosalia, the daughter of Francesco Pelagalli of St. Anatolia,\nbut then living in Camerino, was seized in the year 1802 by constant\nrheumatic pains, which tormented her for two years, and brought her to\na deplorable state.  One evening, when she was suffering more than\nusual, and so much that she was forced by the pains to cry out aloud,\nshe thought of recommending herself in her extreme anguish to the\nmerciful intercession of Rita.  She put into her mouth one of the\nlittle loaves blessed in her honour, and that instant was completely\ncured, and she continued to enjoy good health from that time.  The\ndocuments, drawn up in legal form, which attest this remarkable\nrecovery, are still extant in the archives of the convent.\n\nFor the sake of brevity we omit many other wonderful cures obtained by\nthose who sought the assistance of St. Rita.  But we must not\naltogether neglect to speak of the solemn transposition of her body.\nAfter death, as we have already said, Rita's body was placed in a\ncoffin which was enclosed in another coffin, and there it remained for\npublic veneration for the space of 288 years, from the year 1457 till\n1745.  But in that year a devout client of the saint resolved to\nprovide a more worthy resting-place for those venerated remains, and a\nnew urn, ample and beautiful, was sent to the convent.  This the\nAugustinian nuns adorned with hangings and ornamentations, so that its\nappearance should in some way correspond with their devotion.\nMonsignor Paolo Bonavisa, Bishop of Spoleto, added by his presence to\nthe solemnity of the occasion, and on Sunday, October 24, in the\npresence of many notable witnesses, carried out with due formality the\ntransposition of the sacred body into its new place of repose, where\nnow it lies.  So may God grant us, through the abundant merits and\npowerful intercession of Rita, to keep our minds and hearts raised\nabove earthly things, so that we may one day be transported with her to\nparticipate in the immense and eternal joy of Paradise.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII[1]\n\nMORE RECENT MIRACLES OF ST. RITA\n\n\n[1] Added to this edition.\n\n\nWe must not pass over in silence the marvellous fact that, as the time\nof the canonization of our heroine was drawing nearer, it pleased the\nLord to let men see more clearly how powerful before the throne of His\ninfinite mercy is her patronage in favour of those who piously invoke\nher.\n\nThe devotion towards St. Rita, which was already of ancient date and\nwidely spread, has, in fact, in these latter years become more\nuniversal and more fervent.  Amongst every class of persons are found\nsome who confidently have recourse to her intercession; triduums and\nnovenas are offered in her honour, her pictures are looked for\neverywhere, relics of her are eagerly sought, and in the severest\ncrises her name is invoked.\n\nThis great increase of worship is due principally, we believe, to the\nvery many signal graces which have been obtained in every country\nthrough Rita's intercession.\n\nIt would be too long to narrate all those cases we have knowledge of,\nbut we must not entirely disappoint the pious curiosity of devout\nreaders by omitting them all.  We select, therefore, a few cases from a\ncollection of these extraordinary favours made by Monsignor Casimiro\nGennari, titular Archbishop of Lepanto, who is himself a most devoted\nclient of St. Rita and most zealous in spreading veneration towards so\npowerful an advocate.  We have chosen those which in our opinion are\nmost extraordinary and miraculous.\n\nAt the same time we wish to protest, out of veneration to the decrees\nof Urban VIII. of the 13th of March, 1625, and of the 5th of June,\n1831, and of those of the Congregation of Rites, that if anything we\nhave hitherto written or are about to write of the miracles of St. Rita\nbe not approved by the Holy See, it ought to receive only that amount\nof credence to which the evidence adduced entitles it.\n\nSister Mary Consiglia Giona, a native of Naples, who entered the\nconvent of St. Cosmo in Conversano in the year 1859, contracted in 1863\na very painful malady of the eyes, which gave her no rest night or day.\nDuring six years she consulted many doctors, who prescribed various\ninternal and external remedies, but always without result.  Ultimately\nshe had to leave the convent and go to live at Bari for six months\nunder the care of an expert oculist, but even then she experienced no\nrelief.  The malady went on increasing, till, to her great grief, she\nlost the sight of her eyes, whilst the pain in them continued as great\nas ever.  She thus returned blind to the convent, and having lost all\nconfidence in human aid, she turned to God and asked Him to cure her\nthrough the patronage of the Blessed Virgin and the saints.  She\nthought many times that in a dream she had seen the most Blessed\nVirgin, who was blaming her for having too much complained of her\nsufferings, and who exhorted her to offer her pains to God.  One night\nwhen Sister Mary Consiglia had been suffering more than usual, worn out\nshe fell asleep, and she seemed to see in a dream the three Babylonian\nyouths, who wanted her to give them some bunches of grapes that were\nnot yet ripe which were hanging from a branch near her room.  She\nrefused, and the youths then said: 'Why do you want a grace that is not\nyet ripe?'  They disappeared as soon as they had uttered these words,\nand the nun was covered with great confusion.\n\nShe continued, however, to have Masses celebrated, and to address her\nprayers to the most holy Virgin and to various saints, but the grace\nshe sought was still denied her.  About this time she heard people\nspeak of Rita of Cascia as the saint who obtains from God what is\notherwise impossible, but having lost her confidence she had no desire\nto have recourse to that saint.  Nevertheless, she was induced, and\nalmost constrained by violence of pain, to begin a novena of prayer in\nher honour.  Shortly after the saint appeared to her in a dream, and\nassured her that she should soon be cured.  And so it was.  Her\nrecovery had not long to be waited for; it was speedy and complete,\nwithout any human aid, for once more she joyfully opened her eyes to\nthe light of heaven, and her pain ceased as if by magic.  She has\npreserved her sight strong and perfect even to the present day, nor has\nshe any need of spectacles even for reading, as so many of her sisters\nin religion have.\n\nThis nun, grateful for the great favour conferred on her, began to\nspread devotion to St. Rita with the utmost zeal.  She had her statue\nplaced in the convent church and exposed for veneration by permission\nof the Holy See, and her proper Mass is said on the feast day, which is\ncelebrated with great solemnity and attended by a large concourse of\nthe faithful.  In this way special devotion to St. Rita began in\nConversano and the neighbouring towns, and many wonderful graces have\nbeen granted in those places by this most powerful patron.\n\nSister Anna Rosa Biscozzi, a nun of the same convent, was, in 1885,\nattacked by a violent pain in the ear, which continued for four months,\nand not only rendered her completely deaf, but nearly drove her mad\nwith agony.  The disease made such progress that one evening blood\nbegan to pour from her ear, and no means of stanching it could be\nfound.  The doctor's efforts were quite useless, and not being able to\nsuggest anything better he ordered the ear to be dressed with oil of\nalmonds.  But the invalid, instead of using the oil that was\nprescribed, made use of oil from St. Rita's lamp, and she anointed the\naffected part with it for seven days, reciting three Glorias and an\nAve, whilst she made the sign of the Cross with the oil, and finally\nsaying the ejaculation, 'Blessed Rita, pray for me.'  On the seventh\nnight she had a feeling as if something inside her head had opened, and\nfrom that moment she noticed she could hear the ticking of the clock,\nand in a short time every trace of her malady had disappeared.\n\nSignora Nicoletta de Bellis of Rutigliano was often complaining of an\nintolerable pain in her head, which came on every fifth or sixth day,\nand had reduced her to a condition of the utmost emaciation.  She had\nconsulted many physicians, amongst them some of the most distinguished\nin Naples, and had submitted to many courses of treatment, but all to\nno effect.  The malady was obstinate, and her health was failing day by\nday.  Her aunt, who was a nun in the convent of St. Cosmo in\nConversano, of which we have had reason to speak already, told her of\nSt. Rita's miracles, and persuaded her to have recourse to that saint\nby a fervent novena.  The invalid followed her advice, and we may\nimagine her joy and wonder on finding herself freed from her malady at\nthe very beginning of the novena.  The recovery was a perfect and\nlasting one, and no vestige of disease was left.\n\nA poor man from Conversano had the misfortune to get a fistula on one\nof his eyes, which could be got rid of only by a difficult and costly\nsurgical operation.  He would have to go to Bari and pay 200 lire to\nthe surgeon, which it was quite impossible for him to do.  He had\nrecourse to St. Rita in his trouble, and besought her intervention with\na lively, ardent faith.  His prayers were heard; the fistula\ndisappeared from his eye without the intervention of the surgeon's\nknife.  He had a solemn Mass of thanksgiving sung every year in honour\nof his deliverer.\n\nIn 1886 a little boy of four years fell on the fire of a brazier, and\nbesides being badly burnt, his eyes were so seriously injured that he\ncould no longer open them.  His afflicted mother called in the doctors,\nand applied the remedies they prescribed, but without effect.  Day\npassed after day, and the child remained blind, nor was there any hope\nleft that he would recover his sight.  His pious mother then betook\nherself to prayer to God and His saints; she addressed many appeals on\nher child's behalf to various heavenly patrons, but the favour she\nsought was not granted.  One night, whilst she was sleeping, there\nappeared to her a nun, who said, 'You have had recourse to many saints:\nwhy have you not applied to me?'  'And who are you?' asked the woman.\n'I am Blessed Rita,' was the reply, 'whose statue is in the Church of\nSt. Cosmo.  I promise you that if you come to visit me your son's eyes\nwill be opened when you return.'  The woman was in the church early\nnext morning to pay the visit suggested to her and to beg the saint's\nintercession.  On her return she heard her son calling, and on going to\nhim found him with eyes open and entirely cured.\n\nIn March, 1887, Signora Maria Soria Carcaterra of Conversano received a\nremarkable favour from St. Rita, which she herself thus describes:\n\n\n'I, the undersigned, testify that I have received the following favour\nfrom B. Rita of Cascia.  A cyst having appeared on my right eyelid, I\nconsulted various distinguished doctors, who told me I should have to\nundergo an operation.  But I thought it better to recommend myself to\nB. Rita, and after many prayers she did me the favour of causing the\ncyst to disappear without any need of doctors or of medicine.\n\n'MARIA SORIA CARCATERRA.'\n\n\nSignor Giovanni Biscozzi had in 1887 been ill for a long time with a\npainful malady.  The physicians thought he was suffering from disease\nof the heart, and therefore incurable.  It is certain that he had to\nremain shut up in his room, for every changing of place caused him\ngrievous torment.  When his aunt, who was a nun in the convent of St.\nCosmo in Conversano, came to learn this, she sent him one of St. Rita's\nblessed loaves, advising him to take a little piece of it every day and\nthen drink a little water in memory of the saint's fastings, and to\nrecite three Glorias and an Ave and the invocation, 'Blessed Rita, pray\nfor me.'  The sick man followed the advice, and immediately had\nexperience of its salutary effects, for he felt considerably better,\nand very soon was restored to his former health.  As a mark of\ngratitude he sent the convent a present of oil to be used in the lamp\nat the saint's statue.\n\nPaolina Giannetti, a lay sister of the same convent of St. Cosmo, had a\nlarge pustule on her arm which was very painful, and since she could\nnot be dispensed from working, it festered, and her whole arm became\nswollen, and in consequence of this she fell into a violent fever.  It\nwas thought indispensable that a doctor should be called in, and that\nevening a message was sent to the doctor asking him to come next day,\nthat a lay sister had need of his services.  That night a picture of\nSt. Rita was given to the sick nun, and she placed it on her diseased\narm all night.  Hardly had she awakened from sleep when she found that\nthe swelling had entirely subsided, that the fever had left her, and\nthat every trace of the pustule had also disappeared.  The doctor came\nlater, and was told there was no need for his services.\n\nSignora Natalizia Scattone of Conversano relates that her husband had a\nlarge tumour on one of his legs, which forced him to keep his bed for\nmany days, and which had ultimately to be removed by an operation.  His\nwife was very much afraid that the wound made by the surgeon would\nbecome a fistula, for even the slightest scratch on her husband took\nseveral days to heal.  She had before received many favours from St.\nRita, and was therefore very devout towards her; and on this occasion,\nhardly had the surgeon departed after the operation, than she placed a\nrelic of the saint over the bandages, and prayed with all her heart for\nher husband.  On the following day the surgeon returned to dress the\nwound, but when the bandages were removed, it was found to be\ncompletely healed, to his great amazement and that of the family.\n\nSignor Domenico Lopriore of Conversano had a tooth extracted in 1887,\nand perhaps owing to the damp to which he exposed himself by going into\nthe country at an early hour, an abscess was formed in his mouth, which\nreduced him to the last extremity.  A very high fever, with swellings\nin his throat, face, and tongue, deprived him of all repose.  His\ntongue especially had grown so large that he had perforce to keep it\nfull two fingers' breadth hanging out of his mouth.  The doctors,\nseeing that he was growing worse, ordered him the last Sacraments.  He\nhad a cousin who was a boarder in the convent of St. Cosmo, and who was\nvery devoted to St. Rita.  She, with the nuns, prayed very fervently to\nthe saint for the sick man's recovery, and his uncle, a priest, offered\nMass for the same intention on the saint's altar in the church.  The\nholy sacrifice and the prayers soon brought about the desired effect,\nfor the sick man suddenly became much better, and in a short time was\ncompletely cured.\n\nDevotion to St. Rita has not only brought health to bodies, but\nsalvation to souls, as the following shows: Sister Genefosa Perrini,\nnun of the convent of St. Cosmo, having to live out of _clausura_ for\nsome time owing to ill-health, had occasion to go to Bari one day with\nher brother, Canon Francesco Perrini.  In that town they heard of a\nyoung lady who was dying, and who, masquerading as a freethinker,\nrefused to have anything to do with priests or Sacraments.  Her\nrelatives, who were in the utmost affliction at such a misfortune,\nbegged the Canon and his sister to go and see her, in the hope that\ntheir visit might excite some good thought in her.  They went to see\nthe invalid, but as soon as she caught sight of them she began to abuse\nthem bitterly.  Said the Canon to her: 'Signora, I am only come to pay\nyou a simple visit, and also, if you please, to bring you a cure for\nyour disease.'  'What cure?' asked she, growing calmer.  'If, indeed,\nyou have an efficacious one, you are welcome.'  By good fortune the\nCanon had a little picture of the saint, and, offering it to the sick\nlady, he said: 'Here is the cure.  If you will have recourse to this\nadvocate, who is called the Saint of the Impossible, you will be\nsaved.'  The sight of the picture, indeed, worked a wonder.  Instead of\nflying into a passion and throwing it back to them, as she had done on\nother occasions, the invalid freely accepted it, took it with devotion,\nand placed it under her pillow.  After this the Canon with his sister\ntook his leave and went away, but hardly had he gone a few yards than\nhe was called back in a great hurry, and when he went to the invalid\nshe asked him to hear her confession.  The Canon showed her that he\ncould not hear confessions outside his own diocese, and he exhorted her\nto avail herself of a confessor of the place.  She allowed herself to\nbe persuaded, a confessor was called in, and she made her confession\nwith great sorrow.  She said that Rita had appeared to her as a nun,\nand incited her to die well.  She received the Holy Viaticum and\nExtreme Unction with signs of sincere piety, and then delivered up her\nsoul to God.\n\nIn March, 1888, Signora Caterina Bianchini had a little son of five\nyears of age who was attacked by cancerous diphtheria in the throat,\nwhich soon placed him in extreme danger of death.  The physicians had\ndespaired of him, and gave him only four hours to live.  His mother,\nwho at other times had received signal favours from St. Rita, had\nrecourse to her, confident in her assistance, and beseeching her with\ntears to help her.  She anointed the child's throat with the oil of the\nsaint, and, most wonderful to tell, hardly had the oil touched his\nthroat than he moved himself, recovered consciousness, spoke, and in a\nfew days was well.  On the following day the doctor and their relations\ncalled rather to visit the parents than the child, who they thought was\ndead, but imagine their astonishment on seeing him restored to health!\n'My mother,' said he, 'rubbed me with St. Rita's oil, and said.  \"Saint\nRita, give me my son,\" and I was well again.'\n\nIn 1890 Signorina Susanna Pallieri of Conversano had suffered from a\nsevere pulmonary complaint, and when she recovered from it she was\ntroubled by a gathering in one of her eyes which remained from that\ndisease, and which resisted all the efforts of her doctors.  When she\nfound that none of the doctors of her native place could effect a cure,\nshe put herself under the care of Dr. Vitali, a distinguished oculist\nof Bari, for three months.  But the gathering in her eye grew worse\ninstead of better, and finally the oculist, seeing that all his\nattempts produced no result, had to throw up the case.  It would be\nimpossible to tell the sorrow of the poor young lady at so unfortunate\na result of her efforts.  Having lost all hope in human aid, she, with\nher mother, began to beseech St. Rita either to cure her of her malady\nor else take her out of this world to escape the intolerable anguish of\nthe pain she had to bear.  Their prayers were not in vain, for on the\nvery next day after beginning the prayers her eye was very much\nimproved, and that evening she was entirely cured.  Dr. Vitali was\nimmediately informed of what had happened, and at first did not believe\nit; but when he saw that she had really been cured, he declared openly\nthat such a cure ought to be regarded as a real miracle.  From that day\nSignorina Pallieri was entirely cured of the disease of her eye, and\nenjoyed excellent health, nor does she cease to return thanks to the\nSaint of the Impossible.\n\nIn the town of Turi, in February, 1893, a boy of five years of age\nnamed Filippo d'Addabbo, who had just had an attack of scarlatina,\ndeveloped symptoms of violent fever accompanied by swellings of his\nwhole body.  For two days he had remained in bed unable to speak, and\nthe doctors gave him up for dead.  In this state he suddenly opened his\neyes, made a sign towards a picture of St. Rita that was hanging in the\nroom, and said to his mother: 'Take down that picture, and light some\ncandles before it,' and they did so.  Early on the following morning he\nsaid: 'Mamma, write to Aunt Chiara Maria (she was a nun in the convent\nof St. Cosmo) in Conversano to have a Mass said to St. Rita.'  And they\nimmediately did as he wished.  On the evening of that day the child\ngrew worse, and they were afraid he was dying, as the doctors had\nassured them.  At a certain time of the night, however, he became\nnoticeably better.  When the doctors came next day to visit him they\nfound him, to their astonishment, entirely recovered, and repeating the\nwords, 'Blessed Rita has cured me.'\n\nNatale Esperti, a shoemaker of Conversano, had been in a deplorable\nstate of health for a long time, for his feet and legs were swollen,\nand a pain in the heart deprived him of all chance of repose.  The\nheart disease became worse, and the doctors attending him lost all hope\nof saving his life.  On Tuesday in Holy Week, 1895, he received the\nlast Sacraments, as he was almost on the point of death, and his end\nwas expected every hour.  His sister-in-law, who was most devoted to\nSt. Rita, pitying his sad case, went to pray for him in the Church of\nSt. Cosmo, and brought some candles to light before the saint's statue.\nWhilst all the others were weeping about the bed of the dying man she\nobtained a little picture of the saint, which was placed on his breast\nwhilst they recited the invocation, 'St. Rita, pray for him.'  They\nalso gave him a little piece of the saint's blessed bread, which he\ntried to swallow.  A wonder was instantly seen, for the swelling\ndecreased considerably, and the pain at the heart disappeared.  In\nthree days the man who had been dying was able to rise from his bed\ncured, to the incredible wonder of all who had assisted him dying.\n\nSignora Antonia Bernardi of Cisternino also obtained a stupendous\nfavour from our saint.  In May, 1895, she had an attack of scarlatina,\nwhich was epidemic in that town, and had proved fatal in many cases.\nIn her case it was so violent and so much resisted all the skill of the\ndoctors that she was declared incurable, and she was preparing herself\nto receive the last Sacraments.  Her parents were distracted with\ngrief, but knowing the miracles that St. Rita works in every place,\nthey had recourse to her patronage in their sorrow.  The dying woman\nalso recommended herself confidently to St. Rita, and joined her\nprayers to those of the others.  Whilst she was in a paroxysm of fever,\nand hence could not say whether she was sleeping or waking, St. Rita\nappeared to her, and with her another saint whom the sick woman could\nnot distinguish.  The saint came close to her bed, and said to her, 'I\nhave cured you; now you will be well, but mind, return me the visit at\nConversano.'  The saint disappeared, and the sick woman found herself\ninstantly well.  Her parents and relatives were seized with the utmost\nastonishment, and they took care to betake them to Conversano to return\nthe visit of their beneficent visitor.  There is no need to say that\nafter this event the worship of St. Rita was extended to people of\nevery rank in Cisternino.\n\nAmongst the very many places into which the worship of St. Rita has\nbeen publicly introduced in very recent years, Noci, a large town in\nthe diocese of Conversano, is deserving of special mention.  There is\nan altar, richly ornamented, erected in the principal church there in\nhonour of the saint, and never a day passes that crowds of the faithful\ndo not go there to offer their prayers or pay their vows.  And Rita,\nlooking with pleasure on the piety of the people of Noci, repays them\nevery day with help and favour.  For brevity's sake we shall mention\nonly three examples of this, and in the first place that obtained by\nthe priest, Don Francesco Morea, who is remarkable for promoting\ndevotion to St. Rita.  Here are his words:\n\n'About midnight on the 10th of April, 1895, I was awakened by violent\nbeatings of my heart, so frequent and continuous that I could not\nbreathe.  I remained a long time sitting up in bed with my hand tightly\npressed over the region of the heart, in great trouble, without being\nable to utter a word.  However, I turned to Blessed Rita in thought,\nplaced her picture over my heart, and vowed a silver heart if she\nliberated me from this sudden illness.  I recited three Glorias in her\nhonour, adding, \"O, Blessed Rita, pray for me.\"  As soon as I had done\nthis I was quite well.  The beating of my heart became regular; I was\nable to lie down and sleep.  From time to time since this nervous\npalpitation has returned, but never in the same form as that night, nor\nfor so long.  I redeemed my vow on the 14th of May by hanging on her\npicture the silver heart I promised.'\n\nThe influenza, which was rife in many parts of Puglia in 1895, did not\nspare the town of Noci.  Amongst others, Maria Luizzi, wife of Simone\nSansonetti, a bleacher, was attacked by it.  After struggling with the\ndisease for several days at last it left her, and the doctor allowed\nher to leave her bed.  Hardly, however, had she put foot on the floor\nthan she felt entirely prostrated, and experienced such a feeling of\ndizziness that she fell at full length on the floor, and was with great\ndifficulty got into bed again.  On the next and three following days\nthe same feelings of weakness and dejection continued.  On the evening\nof the fifth day, animated with strong confidence in St. Rita, to whom,\nas we have said, an altar in the parish church was dedicated, she\nprayed in this way: 'O Blessed Rita, I promise to present you with my\nbreloque if you allow me to remain out of bed all day to-morrow.'  When\nthe time came to get up, she left her bed and dressed herself, without\nthe least doubt that her prayer had been heard.  She tried to walk\nabout her room, and found she could do so without difficulty, for she\nfelt herself fortified with new strength, and all the ill-effects of\nthe influenza vanished.  She redeemed her vow to the saint on the 5th\nof June, 1895.\n\nThe following fact that happened in Noci on the 28th of June, 1895,\ncrowns all the wonderful works which the Saint of the Impossible\nperforms every day.  It is the case of a doctor--as pious and religious\nas he is skilful in the healing art--who was unexpectedly attacked by\ncerebral congestion and reduced to the last extremity, and even thought\nto be dead, who, after simply being anointed by the saint's oil moved\nhimself, revived, and completely recovered.  But let us leave it to\nhimself to tell the story, for out of gratitude for the favour received\nhe has written the following with his own hand:\n\n\n'On the 28th of last June, in the forenoon, whilst I was making my\nusual round of medical visits, I began to feel unwell; and about eleven\no'clock, whilst I was standing by a sick man, I could not complete my\nvisit, for I almost fell into a swoon.  The women who were standing\nopposite me noticed that I was ill and gave the alarm.  The priest, Don\nPietro Gentile, near whose house I was, was sent for and soon arrived.\nHe asked me how I felt, and I replied, \"I mistrust myself.\"  \"Do you\nwish to go home?\" said he.  \"Yes,\" I answered, \"let us go.\"  And with\nthe utmost difficulty I got there.  I threw myself on the bed, lost all\nsense, was seized with epileptic convulsions of the Jacksonian type,\nproceeding from congestion of the brain.  I had three attacks at short\nintervals, each more serious than the preceding one.  Blood was let,\nleeches were applied, many mustard cataplasms were used, ice was kept\nconstantly to my head.  My colleagues who affectionately attended me\nalready despaired of my recovery, and had the last Sacraments\nadministered to me; the priests were reciting the prayers for the\ndying, and it was rumoured that I was dead.  The good people poured\ninto the church, and now had no hope except in a miracle.  Ceaseless\nprayers were offered, especially before the altar of Blessed Rita.  The\noil of the saint was requisitioned.  I was conscious of waking as from\na calm sleep, whilst I felt a hand anointing my cheeks; I afterwards\nlearned that the same thing had been done over my stomach and on my\ntemples.  From that moment I WAS COMPLETELY RESTORED TO HEALTH, and but\nfor the concern of my friends I would have dressed myself and gone\nabout my usual occupations.  This event, really extraordinary, believed\nby all the people to have happened by the intercession of Blessed Rita,\nI consecrate in this account of it, as a proof of my gratitude, to the\nglory of the same Blessed Rita.\n\n'PASQUALE TATEO, M.D.\n\n    'Noci,\n'2_nd of July_, 1895.'\n\n\nSince this case is so singular, and the miracle so great, we subjoin\nthe account of it given by the zealous priest of the place, Don\nFrancesco Morea:\n\n'The deaths of the three ladies, Vavalle, Mansueto, and Anguilli, had\nimpressed the town with sadness, when a new and unexpected sorrow came\nto disturb all the people.  In less time than it takes to relate the\nsad tidings had passed from mouth to mouth; people of every condition\nwere seen to stop in astonishment, to ask news of one another, and turn\ntheir steps to the house where the sick man lay.  It was singular to\nsee the stairs crowded with little children of both sexes, to see the\npeople come out tearfully on the balconies and ask news of the\npassers-by, and the universal sorrow would have told you the great\nesteem in which he that was so near the tomb was held.  The news that\nhe had already received the last Sacraments, and that the priests, who\nwith the doctors were about his bed, had begun the prayers for a soul\ndeparting, made it clear to all that very few hours of life remained to\nDoctor Pasquale Tateo.  In the midst of such heartfelt sorrow there\nwere some, however, who were offering fervent prayers for him to the\nMost High through the intercession of the Saint of the Impossible.\nThere were some who, whilst they slept, felt inspired by the same\nblessed servant of God to light a lamp before the picture of the\nmiracle-worker, and thus obtain for certain the favour they desired;\nthere were some who began in secret a triduum for the sick; and by the\ndying man's bed were some who, provided with the miraculous oil,\nanointed with it, whilst reciting the usual prayers, his head, his\nstomach and abdomen, that were swollen to an extraordinary extent.  And\nsuch great faith in the intercession of our new protectress was crowned\nby a most singular grace.  As soon as the anointing was completed there\ncame on a more violent fit of convulsions than any that had preceded\nit, and it was thought the doctor's last hour had come.  But that fit\nwas the last, and it seems that the powerful advocate wished to have it\nunderstood that she intervened on behalf of her faithful clients\nexactly when they were in direst peril, and when all hope of recovery\nby human means had been abandoned.  Whilst the convulsive fit was in\nprogress they began again to anoint him with the marvellous oil, and\nthen he came to himself, and looked as if he were waking from a calm\nsleep of three hours.\n\n'The transition from death to life was so sudden that those who were\npresent could not but acknowledge that the recovery was a true miracle\ngranted to the prayers of the entire town by its new protectress,\nBlessed Rita.  Pleasant to relate, there was no time of convalescence,\nno getting better by degrees, no further remedy applied to him; but on\nthe 30th the doctor, without any trace of weakness from the\nblood-letting, but full of energy, cheerful, and witty, as he usually\nhad been, woke early in the morning, and, hearing the bell of the\nCapuchin church ringing, wanted to get up and go to Mass, as it was a\nfeast day, but he was not allowed to do this.  He rose later in the\nday, was able to take his meals, and returned to his house without\nassistance, amidst the wonder and applause of the people.  The next\nday, early, he resumed his ordinary professional duties.  These\ncircumstances were such as would make those who did not know of the\nmiracle believe that the occurrence must have been the result of an\nexcited imagination rather than undeniable fact.  Yet such they were,\nand the miracle is all the more wonderful on this account, and worthy\nof being published for the glory of God and Blessed Rita.  To this end\nthe doctor, out of gratitude, promises to make the altar dedicated to\nher in this principal church even richer than it already is, by\npresenting a beautiful silver lamp to be hung from the arch in front of\nit.'\n\nOn the 20th of January, 1896, Signora Anna Gregori of Rome was seized\nby a violent fever, which at first was thought to be simply rheumatic\nfever, but which very soon developed into that terrible malady\npleuro-bronchial pneumonia, which is in most cases fatal in Rome.  In\nspite of the prompt and skilful treatment of the well-known Professor\nMasciarelli, the disease continued to gain force so rapidly that the\npatient, who was also _enciente_, received the last comforts of\nreligion on the 25th of the month, and also the blessing of the Holy\nFather, and after having tearfully given her last messages to her\nfriends, she was awaiting the call of the Lord with resignation.\n\nMeanwhile her husband, Signor Augusto Gregori, who was inconsolable at\nthe loss that threatened him after only eight years of married life,\nturned with confidence to Our Lady of Pompei and to St. Rita of Cascia,\nthat well-known sketch of whose life he had read a few days before,\ncalled 'The Saint of the Impossible.'  He fervently besought her aid,\npromising to present a silver votive offering and to spread devotion to\nher.  Even before midnight of that day the invalid felt relief, the\nfever went down, her strength came back, and after two days the doctors\ndeclared her out of all danger.  She was shortly after able to rise\nfrom her bed completely recovered.  The favour was a complete and\nperfect one, for after her serious illness there was no trace of\ntuberculosis, which was feared, and after less than a month she gave\nbirth to a strong and healthy little daughter.  Her husband, who\nquickly redeemed his vow, does not cease to give glory to the Saint of\nthe Impossible.\n\nSimone Rotunno and his wife, Rosa Naracci, of Conversano, were\noverwhelmed with grief at a serious illness that threatened the life of\ntheir little daughter Maria, a child of four years.  On the 27th of\nJanuary, 1896, about five in the morning, they found her writhing in\nconvulsions and almost at the point of death.  Immediately they\nbesought the help of their great patron St. Rita, and anointed the\nchild's members with oil from the saint's lamp whilst they were\noffering fervent prayers.  They had not long to wait, for at eleven\no'clock on the same morning the child, who had hitherto shown no signs\nof life, stirred in bed, opened her eyes, and began to speak, and after\nten days was restored to perfect health.\n\nA boy and girl, children of Doctor Vito Antonio Argenti of Polignano,\non the sea-coast, caught the influenza, which was rife there in 1896.\nThe disease took a very serious turn in the boy's case, and developed\ninto pneumonia, accompanied by high fever and pain in the shoulder.\nThe dangerous development of the disease caused consternation in the\nfamily.\n\nThey immediately began a novena to St. Rita, to whom devotion is very\ngenerally practised in that place, and in whose honour an altar is\ndedicated in the Church of the Sacred Heart.  They had two lamps\nlighted before her picture, and promised many gifts if their son should\nbe restored to health.  Their prayers were answered, for the child grew\nmarkedly better during the novena, and was completely cured by the time\nit was finished.  The same remedy was adopted in the case of the little\ngirl, on whom the disease had told severely.  They put a picture of the\nsaint on her breast, which she often kissed devoutly, another novena\nwas begun for her recovery, and an improvement was soon evident, and\ncontinued till she was restored to perfect health.\n\nA woman from Casamassima, who was married at Bari, had an only son of\nabout seventeen years of age, who was very wild and dissolute.  He was\nfor ever running away from home, getting into trouble, and giving vent\nto his vicious inclinations, and staying out at night more often than\nnot.  Seeing that all good advice and even threats were thrown away\nupon him, his afflicted parents applied to St. Rita in prayer, for they\nhad heard of the wonderful deeds she had done.  They began a novena of\ncertain Paters and Aves as well as they could.  On the third day their\nson appeared at home, but shortly after went off again and returned no\nmore.  Nevertheless, they still had confidence in the saint, and began\na second novena after the manner directed in a little book they got\nfrom an aunt of theirs.  When the novena was nearly finished the son\ncame back quite changed from what he had been.  He threw himself at his\nparents' feet, and with tears asked their pardon for the grief he had\ncaused them, promising to lead a new life for the future.  To remove\nall occasion of giving way to his vagrant propensities, he asked them\nto have him taught some business in which he could by his conduct give\nproof of his sincerity.  His parents, beside themselves with joy,\nhastened to Conversano to return thanks to St. Rita, and as a proof of\ntheir gratitude they had a lamp lighted before her altar, which they\nmade arrangements to keep burning on Friday in every week.\n\nThe brother-in-law of a certain Sister of Charity was dangerously ill\nof pneumonia in February, 1896.  The doctor who was called to attend\nhim did not let his friends know how critical the case was, in order\nnot to frighten them, but he only said to the patient's wife, 'Pray to\nGod for your husband.'  Luckily for her, she had a copy of the book\n'The Saint of the Impossible,' which her sister the nun had given her,\nand she entrusted everything to the saint, and earnestly begged her\nhelp for the sick man.  One night he almost swooned from the violence\nof his cough, and had to sit up in bed.  About midnight he saw a nun\ncome close to him and gaze at him fixedly without speaking.  She stood\nby his side for half an hour and then disappeared.  From that time the\nlonged-for recovery commenced, and to the doctor's astonishment went on\nrapidly till he was entirely restored to health.  It would be\nimpossible to describe the joy of the family at this marvellous result.\nThe fame of it was spread about, and devotion to the Saint of the\nImpossible spread to such an extent that a picture of St. Rita had to\nbe placed in the parish church to satisfy the people's veneration.\n\nTwelve children of the house of Ventimiglia were all suffering from the\nmeasles in March, 1896, in Vatolla, which is a town of the province of\nSalerno, and the youngest, a little girl of two years of age, was, in\naddition, attacked so badly by laryngitis that it was feared she would\nchoke every moment.  Her eldest sister, beside herself with grief, took\nher little picture of St. Rita, and, fastening it about the little\npatient's neck, earnestly prayed for the grace of her recovery.  Only a\nfew minutes passed when little Teresa--for so the sick child was\ncalled--raised herself without assistance in her cot and asked for\nmilk.  That evening the fever, which had been very high, had almost\ndisappeared, and her cough, too, had ceased to a very great extent.  A\nfew days later the child was able to get up, fully recovered.  The\nfamily, out of gratitude to their great protectress, had a Mass\ncelebrated at her altar in Conversano.\n\nIn 1896 the marriage of Giuseppe Centrone to Maria Rotunno, two very\ngood and pious young persons and fairly well off, was to have taken\nplace.  Through a slight quarrel, however, the marriage was broken off\nby the bridegroom.  The bride, troubled at this sinister turn of\nevents, together with her parents had recourse to St. Rita, and\npromised to present a golden votive offering if the groom should of\nhimself reopen negotiations for the marriage that had been abandoned.\nOn the vigil of her feast the saint appeared to the bridegroom in his\nsleep, and said: 'Beppino, your wife must be Maria and no one else.'\nThis was enough to bring him back to his bride and to have the marriage\ntake place, as it did, in fact.  The vow to the saint was not only\nfulfilled, but they had a High Mass offered on her altar.\n\nOne night in 1896 a young woman from Castellana was sleeping on the top\nof a very high rick of straw, when suddenly it gave way and fell to the\nground.  The young woman, who would have been crushed to death under\nits weight, immediately invoked St. Rita, and was rescued from danger\nwithout receiving the slightest injury.  The saint appeared to her the\nfollowing night whilst she was asleep, and said: 'I have saved you from\ndeath, and I want in return that new dress you have made.'  The poor\ngirl had, by dint of careful saving, made a new dress for herself, with\nwhich she wished to make an appearance on the feast days, but she made\nthe required sacrifice to the Saint of the Impossible.  She sold it and\nbrought its price to be used in spreading the devotion to St. Rita from\nthe church in Conversano.\n\nIn 1896 there was a family in St. Vito dei Normanni which was plunged\nin the greatest misery owing to its head having entirely abandoned\nhimself to a disgraceful vice, which he still continued to practise in\nspite of the terrible consequences it brought upon him.  For although\nsymptoms of paralysis and rheumatism showed themselves, and he was\nreduced to a state of the utmost weakness and almost blindness, he\nstill went on to follow the path that ends in ruin of body and soul.\nHis unfortunate family, having heard of the innumerable miracles of the\nSaint of the Impossible, had recourse to her.  They made a most fervent\nnovena in her honour, and ended it with receiving Holy Communion, and\nvery soon the good effect of their prayers was evident.  After a couple\nof days the man who had been brutalized by his base pursuits began to\ntake heed for himself; the spirit of prudence awoke in him again; he\nabandoned his wicked practices, regained sight and strength, and\nrecovered the health he had squandered.  It is no wonder that the name\nof St. Rita is glorified in that family, or that the eldest daughter\nhas made a vow to recite the prayers of St. Rita's novena every day as\nlong as she lives.\n\nA young lady named Franceschina Gabrielli, from Noci, fell dangerously\nill in 1896, whilst she was on a visit to some relatives in Rutigliano.\nAll the doctors of the town were called in successively to prescribe\nfor her, and others were brought from distant places, but they could\nnot stop the progress of the disease that was killing her.  The grief\nof her family and relatives was indescribable on being informed by the\ndoctors after three consultations that nothing but a miracle could save\nher.  The young lady, worn out by the disease and in her last agony,\nhad received the last consolations of religion, and the special\nbenediction of the Holy Father, and was preparing herself for the\npassage to eternity.  All preparations were made for her funeral, the\ndress for the corpse and the coffin were got ready, and the clergy and\nconfraternities appointed to assist in the procession to the tomb.\n\nBut Franceschina had very special devotion to St. Rita, and was\nrecommending herself to her protection with most fervent prayers.  She\nheld a picture of her in her hand, which she was kissing every minute,\nand although resigned to make the sacrifice of her life to God, she\npromised the saint to honour her by procuring a little statue of her if\nshe should obtain the grace of recovery.  One evening she was suffering\na great deal, and the doctors foresaw that she would die that night.\nThe priests were watching by her bedside and comforting her by reciting\nthe prayers for the dying.  At midnight she thought that St. Rita with\nSt. John appeared to her, and that St. Rita said: 'Do not be afraid;\nyou will be well.'  What is certain is that just at that time she broke\nsilence and began to sing a hymn of St. Rita.  But the really\nastonishing fact is that all danger was at an end from that moment, and\nher disease disappeared as if by magic.  The next morning she was\nconvalescent, and the doctors in their astonishment had to confess that\nin this wonderful recovery God had intervened.\n\nThe Salesian Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart amongst other\noccupations are employed in the religious and literary education of\nyoung girls, whom they watch over with a care that is truly maternal.\nTheir mother-house is in Rome, and there is attached to it what is\nstyled a providential boarding-school for young women who attend the\nnormal schools, and at the end of their course get a Government\ncertificate that entitles them to teach.  Providential this college\nreally is, for its pupils attend the Government schools and yet are\ncarefully preserved from every danger.  In 1896 the annual examinations\nat the end of the scholastic year were approaching.  The students were\nin a state of trepidation, for with all their diligence and labour in\nstudy very little was needed to have girls make mistakes in the\npresence of examiners who were perhaps not too favourable to them.\nHaving heard of the miracles of St. Rita of Cascia, they confidently\nturned to her, and confided to her care the result of the examinations.\nThey had recourse to her patronage, they offered prayers in her honour,\nand other works of piety.  Nor were their hopes frustrated.  The\nexaminations resulted most brilliantly, and to the entire satisfaction\nof all who took part in them.  To thank her for so remarkable a favour\nthe grateful girl students elected St. Rita their special protectress.\n\nOn the 29th of May, 1897, a Calabrian gentleman arrived in Conversano\non a pilgrimage, and, going into the Church of St. Cosmo, he went to\nthe altar of St. Rita, and, prostrate before it, offered his thanks to\nthe Saint of the Impossible.  He afterwards told the nun who was\npromoter of the devotion that his name was Luigi Naccarato, of the\nprovince of Cosenza, and that he had come to redeem a vow made to the\nsaint for a remarkable favour granted to him.  He had been suffering\nfor many years from a disorder of the brain that rendered him incapable\nof doing anything.  His brother, a doctor, had used every means to\neradicate his disease; he had consulted the most eminent medical men in\nNaples and elsewhere, but without any good effect.  Having lost all\nhope in human means, he had recourse to the aid of Heaven by prayers to\nseveral holy patrons, but it seemed that Heaven, too, was deaf to his\nappeals.  At last a lady in Cosenza had advised him to trust himself to\nthe Saint of the Impossible, who had granted many extraordinary graces\nto those devoted to her.  The young man, who was truly religious,\nwillingly followed her advice.  He began to invoke the saint, and made\na vow to visit Conversano if his prayers were heard.  His petition was\ngranted; the disease that had hitherto baffled every remedy\ndisappeared, and he felt himself free in mind and vigorous in health,\nas if he had never suffered from any malady.\n\nNot dissimilar from the preceding case was the disease from which the\nPrincess Telesio Antonacci of Naples suffered, and by which she was\nbrought to a deplorable state.  Her brain was so weakened that she\ncould not fix her mind on anything or do anything.  When all the\nefforts of medical science had proved vain, her sorrowful sister, who\nhad the book we have so often mentioned, wrote to Conversano to have a\nnovena offered to the saint.  The novena was made, and some of the\nblessed oil was also sent to have the invalid's forehead anointed with\nit.  Instantly a wonderful change was wrought.  As they anointed her\nforehead the disease grew less, her mind became clear, and her strength\ncame back.  The application of the oil was persevered in and so did the\nimprovement continue, and the oil of St. Rita was recognised as the\nonly remedy against that terrible disease.  The Princess, in gratitude\nfor so signal a favour, sent a present of a barrel of oil to\nConversano, and money also to be employed in worship in honour of the\nsaint.\n\nA little girl, the daughter of Sebastiano Giannuli, a merchant of Bari,\nhad suffered from her earliest years from a tumour in the knee.  The\ndoctors of the town held different opinions as to the nature of her\ndisease, and the well-known Doctor Giuseppe Luciana was consulted, who\ndiagnosed the case as caries of the bone, and declared a surgical\noperation indispensable for a cure.  This operation would be painful,\ndifficult, and full of danger.  The family by this opinion was reduced\nto a state of consternation, and had recourse to prayer, and by the\nsuggestion of a nun made a novena to St. Rita, but the favour they\nprayed for was then denied them.  The operation had to take place on\nthe 22nd of July, 1897, and the tibia was almost entirely separated\nfrom the thigh-bone; the knee-pan was almost entirely removed, nearly\nfour fingers' length of the tibia was removed, and as much of the\nthigh-bone, and both were united so as to form one bone only, whence\nall power of bending the joints was lost.  Owing to the difficulty of\nthe operation the doctors could not promise that she would surely\nrecover; they only said the child would have to suffer a great deal.\nAnd, indeed, the poor child did suffer a great deal from high fever,\nexcruciating pains, and a weakness so extreme that she could not even\ncry out.\n\nOn the next day the child, who up to that time, owing to the pain she\nwas suffering, had not even opened her mouth, asked for a picture of\nthe saint that was hanging in the room, and began to say, 'O, Blessed\nRita! oh, grant me the favour, because I am suffering very much!  It is\ntrue that I have been ungrateful towards you, because when the others\nwere saying the novena I was distracted, and I took very little care to\npray to you; but now I know how wrong I was, and I ask your pardon.\nOh, grant me the favour, for I think I cannot suffer any more.'  And\nwhilst the attendants were drawing close to her bed, she added: 'Make\nway; she is coming now.'  'Who?' they asked.  'A nun,' answered the\nchild.  'Where is she coming from?'  'From there--from that door.'\n'What is she doing?'  'She is moving about my bed--coming to sit near\nme.'  The child then remained motionless, as if she were listening to\nsomething being said to her, and soon after said: 'With the help of the\nsaint, doctors, how well she has settled my leg!  She has put her\nbeautiful hands on me and cured me!' and, turning to those near her who\nwere weeping, 'Do not cry any more,' she said; 'be all very glad.  Do\nyou not see how glad I am at getting so beautiful a favour?  I have no\nmore pain.  Blessed Rita has told me that all my pains will end in\nthree days; with my injured leg I shall be able to dance, to jump, to\nrun about without trouble.'\n\nAnd so it turned out.  The child was able to get up after three days\nfree entirely from all trace of disease.  But the most stupendous part\nwas that her right leg, from which half a palm's length of bone had\nbeen cut off, and which would be shortened, even supposing her cured,\nand quite incapable of bending, was found after the intervention of\nBlessed Rita to be of the same length as the left, and equally flexible\nand sound.\n\nMost grateful for so great a miracle, the family did not put off going\nto Conversano to return thanks and redeem their vow to the Saint of the\nImpossible, and many people took notice of the child that had been\ncured, how she walked without difficulty and without a halt, both her\nlegs being precisely of the same length.\n\nThe following stupendous fact that happened in the case of a person who\nhad never even heard the name of St. Rita of Cascia shows how much God\nwishes glory to be given to His famous servant.\n\nTo Vito Palazzi and his wife Rosina Surico of Gioia del Colle, near\nBari, a child was born in 1897, who was christened Filippo.  From birth\nthe infant had one of its feet turned, so that the sole of the foot was\ntwisted to a right angle from the place it ought to occupy.  Doctors\nwere consulted, but to no effect.  They declared no care could remedy\nthe defect, and that an operation would be dangerous and useless.  The\npoor mother could only weep distractedly.  One night, after crying\nexcessively, she was sleeping, when a nun appeared to her in her sleep.\n'Rosina,' said she, 'why do you weep?  Can you not have recourse to me\nin your affliction?'  'And who are you, O, blessed sister?' said she.\n'I am Blessed Rita of Cascia,' said the nun.  'O, Blessed Rita,' said\nthe afflicted woman, 'cure my little Filippo for me;' and she showed\nthe saint her infant's twisted foot.  'Have faith, Rosina,' said the\nsaint to her; 'the defect in the child is a serious one, but God can do\nall things;' and so saying she made the sign of the Cross three times\non the foot and disappeared.  When the woman awoke on the following\nmorning she remembered the vision, and, hurrying from her bed, she ran\nto the infant's cradle; she undid the bandages and looked at its feet,\nand found them both as they ought to be, for the deformity of the left\nfoot had disappeared.  She knelt on the floor and thanked the saint\nmost earnestly.  She then called her husband, showed him the infant's\nfoot, and told him of the vision and miracle.  She remembered St. Rita,\nand wrote to Conversano for a large picture of her, which she had\nframed, and before which she keeps a lamp burning night and day; and\nshe likewise had a High Mass sung before the saint's altar, nor is she\never wearied in telling the miracle and giving glory to the saint to\nwhom she owes it.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nHER CANONIZATION\n\nIn reading the wonderful and miraculous facts of the life of St. Rita\nand the very many prodigious works done by God through her\nintercession, the reader must have asked himself more than once how it\nis that so grand a soul, whose heroic virtues shine so brightly, and\nwho was, like the greatest saints of the Church, favoured by God with\nmost singular graces and sublime privileges, should be adorned with the\naureole of a saint and raised to highest honours of the altars only\nafter more than four centuries had passed since she had gone to\nimmortal glory in heaven.\n\nThe only reasonable answer to this question, the only explanation of a\ndelay not by any means unique in the history of the canonization of the\ngreat heroes of the Church, is that the judgments of God are\nincomprehensible and His ways unsearchable, and the Divine wisdom which\nin His own time makes each cause produce its effect, and all things\nregulates in number, weight, and measure, so disposes it that the\nexaltation of His servants on earth then takes place when it is for the\ngreater glorification of His Church and the greater spiritual advantage\nof Christians.  This just reflection ought to console us in the sorrow\nwe naturally feel at the long delay that has occurred in bringing to a\nhappy termination the process of the canonization of our heroine.\n\nAfter the privilege of reciting the office and celebrating Mass in\nhonour of the saint had been granted to the Augustinian Order and the\nDiocese of Spoleto in 1627, as soon as the solemn festivals we have\ndescribed were brought to an end, devotion to St. Rita increased to\nsuch an extent, and the desire of the faithful became so fervent to\nhave their great advocate enrolled by the Church's supreme authority in\nthe catalogue of the Blessed and afterwards of the Saints, that in\nAugust, 1737, her cause was resumed in the state and terms in which it\nwas found.  On the 3rd of August in that year an ordinary session of\nthe Congregation was held to debate the point whether the case excepted\nin the decrees of Pope Urban VIII. was fully established, and in the\nresult the Congregation found the answer to be in the affirmative, and\nPope Clement XII., on the 13th of the same month, confirmed the finding\nof the Congregation.  On the 25th of July in the following year\nremissorial letters were therefore sent to the Ecclesiastical Courts of\nSpoleto, in whose jurisdiction Cascia then was, authorizing them to\ninstitute an Apostolic process of inquiry regarding the virtues and\nmiracles of Blessed Rita, it being the unbroken practice of the Holy\nSee not to grant the supreme honours of the altars unless it be shown\nthat the theological and moral virtues were practised in a heroic\ndegree.  But the process then begun was interrupted by various events,\nand was not resumed until 1851.  Without further interruption it was\nfinally perfected in 1855, and its validity was approved in 1856 in\nRome by Pius IX., of happy memory.  Meanwhile the fame of the\nextraordinary graces and miracles granted by God through the saint's\nintercession was everywhere increasing, but it is hard to collect the\nproofs and institute a process that will satisfy the rigorous\nrequirements which the Church exacts in those matters.\n\nNevertheless, juridical proofs of some of these miraculous occurrences\nwere not wanting.  In fact, in the years 1851 and 1852 there was held\nby Apostolic permission in the Ecclesiastical Courts of Nursia, under\nthe jurisdiction of which Cascia had passed, a process of inquiry into\nthe reported case of instantaneous curing of a girl--Elisabetta\nBergamini, who had been suffering from conjunctivitis complicated with\nulcerous keratitis.  Owing to the efforts of the Most Rev. Mons.\nCasimiro Gennari, then Bishop of Conversano, and at present titular\nArchbishop of Lepanto and Assessor of the Inquisition, who is most\nzealous, as we have said, in spreading devotion to St. Rita, the\nauthorization of the Holy See was asked for and obtained in 1887 to\ninstitute a formal Apostolic process of inquiry into the case of Cosimo\nPelligrini, of the town of Conversano, who was reported to have been\nmiraculously cured.  As soon as the inquiry was perfected, it was\nscrutinized in an ordinary Congregation of the Rota on the 28th of\nJune, 1892, and its validity recognised.  On the 17th of the following\nmonth the Holy Father deigned to confirm the sentence of the Sacred\nCongregation.\n\nAlmost at the same time there was held, by virtue of remissorial\nletters of the 18th of February, 1892, in the Ecclesiastical Courts of\nNursia, a special inquiry, in which the Promoter of the Faith, Mons.\nAgostino Caprara, intervened, into the most sweet and miraculous odour\nwhich from time immemorial is at intervals experienced about the\nblessed body of St. Rita.  By other remissorial letters of the 22nd of\nAugust following, the Promoter of the Faith was empowered to examine\nthe venerable body itself, in order to make certain that it had never\nbeen embalmed, nor any odoriferous substances placed in it.\n\nWhen this process of inquiry into the marvellous odour was brought to\nan end, it was decided to join it to the process that had been executed\nin the courts of Spoleto by ordinary authority in 1626.  On the 25th of\nFebruary, 1896, the Sacred Congregation of Rites delivered its judgment\nthat the validity of the two processes of 1626 and 1892 had been\nestablished, the reporter of the cause being his Eminence Cardinal\nGaetano Aloisi-Masella, Prefect of that Congregation.  As regards\nanother process of inquiry executed in 1775, with only ordinary\nauthority, into the instantaneous and miraculous curing of an\nAugustinian nun of the convent of Cascia, it was decided to supplicate\nthe reigning Pontiff, Leo XIII., that he would deign to make good the\ndefect of jurisdiction, and make the acts of that process valid.  But\nthe Holy Father, rather than grant the convalidation, was pleased to\ndispense, by most special favour, with the fourth miracle, for from\ntime immemorial the proof of four miracles has been required for the\ncanonization of the servants of God.\n\nOwing to the sovereign concession of the Holy Father, the promoters of\nthe cause of canonization had high hopes of bringing it to a happy\nconclusion before much more time should pass.  They obtained leave to\nintroduce the Ordinary Process of 1626 as having equal value as proof\nwith the Apostolic Process that closed in 1855; and the presence of the\nconsulters and their voting being dispensed with, on the 6th of April,\n1897, in an ordinary meeting of the Congregation, the writings of St.\nRita were inquired into, and it was further debated and discussed\n'Whether the virtues of Blessed Rita had been so clearly established\nthat the discussion of her miracles might be proceeded with?'  The\nsession gave an affirmative decision, which was confirmed by the\nSovereign Pontiff on the 9th of the month.\n\nThe way was thus prepared for the discussion of the miracles.\nInformation regarding them and summaries were prepared, and the\nopinions of two distinguished experts were added.  On the 27th of June,\n1899, the Congregation met under the presidency of the Most Eminent\nCardinal Aloisi-Masella, reporter of the cause, to discuss the\nmiracles, and on the 9th of January, 1900, the preparatory Congregation\nheld its meeting in the Vatican palace, and on the following 27th of\nMarch, in the general Congregation, assembled, as is customary, in the\npresence of the Holy Father, the following subject was discussed:\n'Whether any, and what, miracles have been conclusively proved, after\nveneration had been allowed to the Blessed, in case and to the effect\nof the present discussion?'  And by a very special favour of the Holy\nSee the following was also discussed: 'And granted the approval of the\nmiracles, whether her canonization may safely be proceeded with?'\n\nThe Most Eminent Cardinals and Most Rev. Consulters delivered their\nopinions on both matters, and were heard most attentively by the\nSovereign Pontiff; and although he described the cause as _most rare_\nand _most noble_, he nevertheless, according to the usual custom,\ndeferred giving his definitive decision, but _redoubled his prayers to\nimplore the help of Heaven_.\n\nOn Palm Sunday, the 8th of April following, the Holy Father, after\nhaving most fervently offered to God the Eucharistic Sacrifice, had the\ndecree of approval of the three miracles, of which we shall speak\nafterwards, read and published with the accustomed solemnity by\nMonsignor the Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.  He next\npublished the decrees, called the 'Tuto,' for the beatification of\nseventy-three Venerable Martyrs of China, Tonquin, and Cochin China,\nmembers of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders, the Congregations of\nMissionary Priests, and of Foreign Missions; and the decree of\nbeatification of the Venerable Martyrs of the West Indies, members of\nthe Order of Discalced Carmelites, and that of the beatification of the\nVenerable Servant of God, Maria Cresenzia Hoss, professed nun of the\nThird Order of St. Francis.  His Holiness then deigned to address to\nthe assembly a Latin allocution, in which he manifested the joy that he\nfelt, especially for the decrees regarding Blessed Rita of Cascia, the\nglory and ornament of the Augustinian Order, and the jewel of the\nUmbrian province, which gave birth also to St. Benedict and St.\nFrancis, and where for many years the Sovereign Pontiff himself had\nexercised as Bishop his pastoral ministry.  All the more did he rejoice\nsince it was a question of this most humble and most holy woman's\ncanonization, a solemn religious ceremony, and supreme act of the\nPontifical authority and of the infallible teaching of the Vicar of\nJesus Christ.  He added that it was desirable that the marvellous odour\nwhich is diffused and given forth from time to time near the sacred\nremains of the Blessed Rita, and called prodigious from the time of\nUrban VIII., should soon be renewed, as a happy augury of a better\nfuture in this Holy Year and in this century that is about to commence.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE THREE MIRACLES APPROVED FOR HER CANONIZATION\n\n_First Miracle_.--The odour which is felt near St. Rita's body,\nespecially when miracles are worked through her intercession, and which\nis diffused in a wonderful manner.\n\nAs regards this miracle, we told in full everything about it in the\nfourth chapter of the present part.  We have only to add our joy that\nthe oracle of the Holy See has solemnly confirmed what historians have\nwritten regarding this sweet odour, and what has been alleged in the\nprocesses and confirmed by experience.\n\n_Second Miracle_.--Complete and instantaneous recovery of Elisabetta\nBergamini from conjunctivitis complicated by ulcerous keratitis of the\nsmall-pox form.\n\nElisabetta Bergamini of Terni, about seven years before the time of\nwhich we wrote, had been attacked by the small-pox in so virulent a\nform that it left her whole face pitted, and destroyed the sight of her\neyes, so that she could hardly distinguish light from darkness.\nSeveral physicians consulted by her parents had submitted her to\ndifferent forms of treatment for the recovery of her sight, but to no\npurpose.  She was then sent as a boarder to the Augustinian convent of\nCascia, where her father's sister was a nun, known as Sister Maria\nMaddalena, in order to pray the Lord through St. Rita's intercession\neither to restore her sight or else take her to Himself.  She was there\nprincipally because her father's stepmother had been miraculously cured\nby St. Rita some years before.\n\nThe girl was brought to the convent and confided to the nuns' care in\n1833.  Pitying the sad case of the afflicted child, they took most\nloving care of her.  The doctor who attended the convent was called in\nto visit her, and he confirmed the opinions of the doctors of Terni\nthat her disease was incurable, and that only a miracle could restore\nher sight.  The poor child suffered great pain, and even the light\ncaused her so much inconvenience that two patches of green silk had to\nbe hung over her eyes.  Besides, there was a constant flow of humour\nmixed with tears, which was so corrosive that it ate away channels on\nher nose and cheeks, and gave forth a nauseating and insufferable\nstench.  To give some relief to the little patient, her aunt and the\nmistress of the boarders used to wash her eyes, by the doctor's\ndirections, with a decoction of marshmallows; but even from this\ntreatment she suffered a good deal, for in the course of it her eyelids\nhad to be raised as much as possible, and this caused her acute pain.\n\nElisabetta continued in this deplorable state till September of that\nyear, when the nuns thought of getting her to wear a black votive dress\nin honour of St. Rita.  This dress was first blessed by the confessor\nand touched to the receptacle in which the saint's body lies.  She was\ndressed in that habit and her eyes touched with a little silver rod,\nwhich tradition says once touched St. Rita's forehead.  The mistress\nnoted that afterwards the flow of humour from her eyes had decreased,\nand this fact gave Elisabetta courage to have greater confidence in the\nsaint's protection.  That morning the nuns, according to custom, were\nsorting in the courtyard the corn to be employed in making the little\nloaves of St. Rita.  The mistress brought Elisabetta to them, and she\nsat down near one of the nuns, and, owing to her blindness, began,\ninstead of selecting the best, to mix what had already been sorted with\nthe inferior corn.  The nun told her to keep quiet, and the mistress\nthen gave her a cup with some corn in it to play with.  As soon as\nElisabetta got the cup she began to stir the corn with her little hand,\nand suddenly called out that she could see, and as she did not know\nwhat corn should be rejected, she held out a grain in her hand and\nasked whether that should be put aside or not.  At the same time she\nthrew off the green patches, and the nuns ran in astonishment to look\nat the child's eyes, and saw that they were most beautiful and entirely\ncured.  To make sure that she had recovered her sight they made her\nsort all the corn that she had in the cup, and she did it perfectly.\nThen they all went together to where the saint's body was to thank her\nfor so great a miracle.  The child then saw for the first time the body\nof her benefactress, and she wept with love, and with her arms crossed\nreturned her thanks in a loud voice.  When the doctor of the convent\nsaw Elisabetta he declared that the saint had worked a great miracle,\nand that otherwise she never would have been able to see.\n\nThe child remained in the convent for nearly three years after, and her\neyes were always strong.  She learned so well to read that she used to\nrecite the office in choir with the nuns, and read instruction for the\nlay sisters.  She also learned to write and sew, and do other feminine\nwork that needs very acute sight.\n\nAs a complement of the narration of this miracle, we judge it right to\nquote the words of a famous Roman physician, who was called on to give\nhis judgment on this prodigious event.  His learned opinion, delivered\nin writing, ends thus:\n\n'It is a matter of conscience and of necessity to reiterate my opinion\nthat this cure has been instantaneous, perfect, and lasting, in no way\ncaused by art or by natural forces, impossible to take place except by\nmiracle, which by science and by conscience must be classified with the\ngreat inexplicable portents which the Omnipotent God allows to be\nperformed by His faithful servants, and in our case by Blessed Rita of\nCascia; and this I again repeat in my deposition under my oath.'\n\n_Third Miracle_.--Instantaneous and perfect curing of Cosimo Pelligrini\nfrom chronic catarrhal gastro-enteritis, hemorrhoidal affection, and\nserious and permanent chronic an\u00e6mia.\n\nCosimo Pelligrini, of the town of Conversano, in the province of Bari,\na tailor by trade, and fifty years of age, broken in health by long\nyears of labour and by troubles of mind, began to lose strength, and\nhis eyesight became so weak that although he used very strong glasses\nhe could distinguish only with difficulty objects a short distance\naway.  He had, besides, grown so deaf in both ears that it was\nnecessary to speak in a very loud voice to make him hear, and so great\nwas his deafness that he did not even hear the strokes of a hammer with\nwhich on one occasion his cloak was nailed for a joke to a bench on\nwhich he was sitting.\n\nBesides his great loss of strength and the weakening of his organs, he\nalso suffered from serious disorders of the stomach, pains in the\nabdominal region, frequent vomitings and h\u00e6morrhoids.  He, moreover,\nexperienced frequent sudden attacks of dizziness, which were so serious\nas to make him fall to the ground unless he speedily retired to bed,\nand stupefied him for hours, during which time his sight was altogether\nobscured.  At night he often suffered from muscular contractions, and\nif he spoke for long or listened to others for any length of time he\nwas seized with shakings in all his members.  His ways of curing\nhimself made his already sufficiently deplorable state of health still\nworse.  For, instead of consulting a doctor, following his own caprices\nhe took frequent purgatives, and bled himself so often and to such an\nextent that he developed chronic an\u00e6mia, which showed its presence in\nhis pallid, emaciated countenance.  He was thus often forced to keep\nhis bed, and his bodily weakness and mental agony made life a burden.\n\nSuch for many years was Pelligrini's miserable condition.  About the\nyear 1877, on the 22nd of May, the feast of St. Rita, to whom he had\ngreat devotion, when he was entering his house after hearing Mass at\nthe saint's altar in the church of the nuns of St. Cosmo, he fell to\nthe ground, deprived almost entirely of sense.  He was put to bed, and\nthe doctor immediately sent for.  On his arrival the doctor instantly\nsaw the very grave state of the man, prescribed some remedies, of\nwhich, however, almost no use could be made, and ordered the last\nSacraments to be administered.  After being anointed, Pelligrini became\nso ill that he lost all strength and the use of his senses, and was\nhardly able to breathe; his face became corpse-like in its pallor as he\nlay motionless in bed.  In this state he passed two days, and on the\nthird day the doctor was of opinion that he would not live till evening.\n\nMeanwhile a lay sister of the convent, who was sister of the sick man's\nwife, sent to ask how he was, and in sending an answer his wife\nrequested the nuns to light the lamp at the saint's altar and offer\nprayers for her husband, who was in his last agony.  The request was\nimmediately attended to by all the community.  Little over an hour\npassed when Pelligrini, as if waking from a profound lethargy, opened\nhis eyes, began to move his arms, and, calling his wife, said to her,\n'I am cured.  Blessed Rita has made me well.'  He then began to tell\nhow the saint had appeared to him, had touched him on the forehead,\nshoulder, and breast, and assured him that he would be cured, and that\nafter only a day or two of weakness he would be entirely well.  He also\ngave the same account of the vision to others who came to see him, and\nthe fact proved that the saint had miraculously saved him from imminent\ndeath.\n\nThe next day he left his bed completely cured, as Rita had told him he\nwould be.  He was able to eat and digest his food as well as any person\nof strong robust health, and all those chronic ills that afflicted him\nfor so many years were instantaneously and entirely eradicated, and his\ndeafness and lack of vision also were entirely gone.  He could see as\nwell as if he had never been shortsighted, and could detect the least\nnoise, and although he was seventy years of age he had regained full\nvigour and strength.\n\nMany people went to see Pelligrini, who seemed as one raised from the\ndead to a new life, and who was filled with a new strength.  All who\nsaw him gave glory to God and to Rita for so wonderful and surprising a\nfact.  After ten years, when he was eighty years old, he was examined\nby doctors, and found perfectly healthy and full of vigour.\n\n\n\n\nCONCLUSION\n\nWe have now come, oh, reader, to the end of our journey, and however\nshort it has been, you, the faithful follower of our steps, cannot fail\nto look back, as travellers do after a difficult passage, and consider\nwith us the difficulty and roughness of the way that Rita traversed in\norder to reach her sublime goal.  We are convinced that it is not\nsimply curiosity that has moved you to follow our plain narration of\nfacts, but the proposal to follow on the path that Rita has travelled\nby, and walk in her footsteps, for the lives of the saints are written\nand read for no other object than with the Divine assistance to cause\ntheir virtues to be imitated.  And you must have remarked that Rita's\nvirtues have this peculiar characteristic--that persons of both sexes,\nof all ages and conditions, may put themselves in the way of practising\nthem and turning them to account.  The young, married persons, parents,\nwidows, persons in religious life, the troubled and afflicted of both\nsexes, have each in the life of this saint a bright and shining mirror\nwherein to behold their stains, their weakness, their imperfection, and\nsee also how to remove these blots under Rita's care and protection.\n\nThe incident of the wondrous bees flitting about her cradle, described\nin the first part, seems to us to symbolize the great multitude of\nChristian souls, each of which in its proper place may extract, like\nindustrious bees, the honey and fragrance of virtue from this mystic,\nodoriferous, and precious garden.  She is indeed the jewel of the\nUmbrian province, as the inspired Pontiff, Leo XIII., styled her in\nmost happy phrase on April 8, 1900, whose beauty can never fade, about\nwhich thousands of souls may gather and be excited to thoughts of\nineffable sweetness that will produce good fruits in time and in\neternity.\n\nYou young people, you parents, you religious, you troubled and\nafflicted, never lose sight of your model!  Have recourse to her in all\nyour trials, and even when your troubles seem irreparable, do not lose\ncourage, for she who is commonly called the _Saint of the Impossible\nand of desperate cases_ will then especially guard you and bring you\nconsolation.\n\n\n\n\nR. & T. WASHBOURNE, 4 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON","title":"Life of St. Rita of Cascia, O.S.A.: from the Italian","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":54874}