SANTA RITA -- A mixed crowd of devotees, expats and people with dire petitions are expected to flock to Santa Rita de Cascia Parish here on Tuesday as the town celebrates the feast day of its beloved patron—Santa Rita de Cascia, Patroness of the Impossible Cases.
The old parish church is expected to be filled with devotees from morning until the late evening for masses and the distribution of rose oils.
Archbishop Emeritus Paciano Aniceto and Archbishop Florentino Lavarias are expected to celebrate mass Tuesday.
People are also expected to visit the first-class relic of Saint Rita de Cascia that is enthroned at one of the church’s side altars. The sacred relic has drawn countless devotees and pilgrims in the past years.
St. Rita is a 14th century Roman Catholic saint, also known as Margarita of Cascia and Rita La Abogada de Imposible, and the patron saint of the impossible.
According to Catholic tradition and history, St. Rita was born in the year 1381 in the village of Roccaporena near Cascia, Italy. Her parents, Antonio and Amata Lotti, considered her from birth a very special gift from God, for Rita was born to them as they were already advancing in age.
As a young girl, Rita frequently visited the convent of the Augustinian nuns of Cascia and dreamed of one day joining their community. She lived in the days when Italy was in turmoil from warring families. Her husband died in a feud while her sons died of natural causes.
St. Rita's life was marked with hardship and struggles. She entered the Augustinian convent at the age of 60 when she received the stigmata on her forehead.
St. Rita is the patron saint of abuse victims, against loneliness, against sterility, bodily ills, desperate causes, difficult marriages, forgotten causes, impossible causes, infertility, lost causes, parenthood, sick people, sickness, sterility, victims of physical spousal abuse, widows and wounds.
The Augustinians brought the belief on Saint Rita in the Philippines consecrating many parishes and barangays after her tutelage. One of which is Sta. Rita town here where the town and the parish have been named after the saint.