St. Rita  "Saint of the Impossible"

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By the singular merits of thy childhood, Obtain for us our request
By thy perfect union with the Divine Will, Obtain for us...
By thy heroic sufferings during thy married life, Obtain for us...
By the consolation thou didst experience at the conversion of thy husband, Obtain for us...
By the sacrifice of thy children rather then see them grievously offend God, Obtain for us...
By thy miraculous entrance into the convent, Obtain for us...
By thy severe penance's and thrice daily bloody scouragings, Obtain for us...
By the suffering caused by the wound thou didst receive from the thorn of thy Crucified Saviour, Obtain for us...
By the divine love which consumed thy heart, Obtain for us our request
By that remarkable devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, on which alone thou didst exist for four years, Obtain for us...
By the happiness with which thou didst part from thy trials to join thy Divine Spouse, Obtain for us...
By the perfect example thou gavest to people of every state of life, Obtain for us...
Pray for us, O holy St. Rita, that we maybe made worthy of the promises of Christ.

   ST. RITA is well known throughout these Isles of Faith.  Scores of municipalities and barrios bear her name.  The first priest to set foot in the Philippines was Father Urdaneta, an Augustinian Father, and St. Rita was an Augustinian Sister.

   Hundreds of Churches and Chapels are dedicated to this “Saint of the Impossible.” In a special way St. Rita Chapel, Manila, was the work of St. Rita.  When in 1917, it seemed that difficulties were insurmountable Father McErlain, first director of St. Rita's Hall, asked our Saint to perform the impossible and bring to life a home for Catholic young men.  In a short time, St. Rita Hall and Chapel was in existence.  The later has been the place of worship for thousands of young students who have passed happy days there, before the Blessed Sacrament and have had the great privilege of assisting at Daily Mass and of studying within the very shadow of our Hidden Guest.  What heart secrets have the walls of this student Chapel not heard?  How many lives have been changed there, how many firm resolution made?

    The parents of our saint were married many years before a child was born to bless their union.  Recalling the example of the parents of Saint John the Baptist, they prayed for an offspring and as the shadows of life deepened, God blessed them with their first child in the year 1381.

     Umbria a province in the center of Italy was the scene of Rita's birth - a poor barrio indeed,” it would be termed in these Islands.

     The history of the period makes one believe that while heresy, wars and disorders of various kinds were rife, the birth of the saint compensated to God, at least in part, amidst surroundings so void of religious devotions.  Her name means “virtue and grace.”  Well did she measure up to this title.

    As with most saints, Rita's infancy and childhood were passed in the ordinary way though the little girl showed that she had the material out of which remarkable characters are molded.

     Her attraction were the Augustinian saints, St. Augustine himself being her patron.  Often did the young child pray to this great sinner-convert saint for help.  As Rita had been born to parents late in life, she, too, had a special affection for St. John the Baptist, the saint who preceded Christ, announced His Coming and baptized Jesus in the, river Jordan.  As St. John spent his years in a desert, fasting and contemplating, - than which there is no sweeter or truer joy, - so Rita liked to be alone, for she enjoyed solitude more than excursions and companionship.

     Children of worth always have deep and genuine affectionate love for their parents.  Being unable to do great things, they can only show filial devotion through their loving obedience, and Rita did this: as she was the only child she resolved to make up for other brothers and sisters; she would be obedient not only to commands but also to the merest suggestions.  She had not to be told; to read the mind of her parents was enough, and she considered the same an order.

     With fidelity to the small things she prepared herself for the greater.  She spent her years in a poor home, in a humble barrio as did Christ Jesus, obedient, doing the small things exceptionally well.  Such is the road that leads to sanctity.

    Not all saints are in the convent.  Nor is it necessary to take the vows of a religious to be pleasing to God.  Many of the greatest saints never entered the solitude of the cloister.  The calendar of the canonized is filled with men and women who spent their years in the world, battling with opposition, doing their duty well.  The ranks of business, commercial endeavor, the various professions, medical, legal teaching, - these have their heroes, their heroines whose lives are best known to God.

     Rita wished to become a Madre.  But her parents had other plans.  What should she do?  It is often difficult to make a decision.  Generally, a true vocation ought not to be sacrificed.  “We ought to obey God rather than man” and “he that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.” These questions worried the young girl who sought the cloister but she also wished to do the will of her parents.  The custom of the times was that a child must follow the will of the Parents.  There were abuses, it is true; men and women were forced into the convent and priesthood as others were kept out.  It is not unkind to suggest that perhaps the parents of Rita interfered with her vocation. In this very day, such a thing too often happen.

        At thirteen years of age, Rita married, - unhappily.  The name of her husband is not given.  His deeds were those of a man in whom respect for womanhood and common decency were unknown.  How many young women have bad the same experience?  Now measure too, the mental agony of Rita who wished to consecrate her purity, her virginity to God and then to find that her parents had arranged for a marriage with a man, certainly not kind, even questionably decent.

     But, the months and years wore on, and two children were born.  Days and weeks of trial passed and brutal agony they were for the young girl who would have been a Sister.  She was in the school of suffering and she knew bow to bear her Cross.  She was being tried in the fire of adversity and she needed patience, courage and determination.

        Anybody might picture the scenes of such a mother with such a husband.  Insults, blows and curses were borne with Christian resignation.  And then, the worst of all!  Her husband was murdered!  Rita forgave the murderers but her two sons were of another mind. They would avenge the murder of their father.  However, death intervened and the two boys bent to revenge were called by the Angel of Death before they could themselves be assassins.

    What a life for a young girl who would have been peaceful, happy and contented in the serenity of the cloister.

    It is a sterling example of what often comes to frustrated vocations.  It is the reward that parents receive, at times, for interfering with the grace of God.  But, for Rita, it was her Cross, it was her Calvary; it was the means God took to teach a lesson and give to other mothers a patroness who had tasted the bitterest cup of sorrow, a cruel husband and ungrateful children.

   Her husband dead, her two sons called to give an account of their lives, Rita, thirty-two years of age, was left alone. Her parents had died and her eighteen year of married life had taken the bloom of youth from her cheeks; but the years had taught her invaluable lessons, thy had brought her closer to her model, Christ crucified.

    Some communities of Sisters accept widows, some do not.  Rita wished to become an Augustinian “Madre” but permission could not be obtained.  She applied and was refused.  She tried a second, a third time.  The story is told, that she prayed to St. John the Baptist and while on her knees, her patron saint came to her, led her through closed convent walls and brought her to the Chapel of the Sisters.  She was asked how she had passed through locked portals and she related her experience.  The Sisters could not now refuse.  She was accepted; she became a postulant, afterwards a novice.

     Convent life is not a bed of roses.  It is a garden of chosen flowers, of souls who prefer the Garden of Olives and the agony of Gethsemane.  To be a true Sister, to follow the rules and regulations, calls for heroic strength of character.  A recent Pope said that he would canonize immediately any Sister who obeyed exactly all the rules of the convent; this simply means that perfect obedience is the surest guarantee of sanctity.

     Rita was now where she had longed to be.  She was close to God, she was close to the Blessed Sacrament; she was in the company of other souls whose every breath being dedicated to Our Lord.

        For some twenty years, she was a Sister.  During the greater part of this time, she was forced to live alone, a punishment that was a joy to her.  The reason for her solitude was that she had a wound in her forehead.  It is said that while one day at prayer, Our Lord allowed her to participate in His Agony; Christ gave her a thorn from the crown of thorns with which His Sacred Head bad been pierced.

     Rita accepted the thorn which opened a wound in her forehead.  And when the wound became worse, when it began to fester and give off a bad stench, the Mother Superior ordered Rita to remain in her cell until the open sore would heal as the odor was too offensive for the other Sisters.  So for practically the remainder of her life, Rita lived alone.

   Charity, purity, poverty, these were three virtues that adorned the Saint's religious life in a conspicuous way.  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul and with thy whole mind.” This is the first and the greatest commandment and the second is like this: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Charity is the beginning and end, not only of the life of a nun, but also of an ordinary Christian.

        “Sell what thou hast and give it to the poor and come, follow Me.” This injunction of Our Lord to the rich young man in the Gospel was Rita's slogan.  She accepted it and embraced it. And even behind convent walls, she found opportunities to practice the spirit of poverty in details, the small things which when heroically done make the mosaic of a life of holiness.

     “Blessed are the, clean of hearts for they shall see God” was not only part of the Sermon on the Mount.  It was the inspiration of this soul following her belated vocation who even amid seeming serenity had to fight serious temptations against purity.

     Not as a “thief in the night” did death come to our saint.  She was prepared, fortified by the Last Sacraments, and her soul, cleansed, and purified, went to its Judge to receive the recompense promised to those who do the will of God here on earth.  St. Rita died May 22, 1452, at 77 years of age!  Then she began to live not only to the Sisters in the cloister who knew her but she began anew her life for the countless thousands who have made her their patroness and their guide.

     Death brought her body to the tomb; it hurried her soul to the celestial Court where she now enjoys the fruit of her sufferings, prayers and sacrifice. It has brought St. Rita into close companionship with people in every corner of the world, with Catholics who have reason to be grateful to her for favors received and petitions granted.

     The Philippines has been blessed with her intercession.  Hundreds and thousands in these Islands have felt the helping hand of the “Saint of the Impossible.”

     Cures without number have been accredited to her intercession.  It seems that she has especially taken under her protection young women, being mindful perhaps of her own unhappy girlhood when but thirteen years of age she was married to a brutal husband.

     More important than physical cures have been the spiritual helps she has so generously granted.  She has showered countless blessings on her devotees, on all who have sought her protection and aid.  On Palm Sunday, April 18th, 1900, she was canonized in Rome.  She became a saint in the full meaning of that cherished word.  “Saint of the Impossible,” she has been happy to bless those who have sought her intercession and she will continue to be the patroness and the helper of all who call upon her, who ask her intercession and assistance.