THE STATUARY OF ST. LEO'S CHURCH The statuary in St. Leo's Church reflects the devotion
to and love of the saints images of whom Italians from different
areas of Italy carried with them to the New World.
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St.
Rita Of Cascia
Patron Saint of Expectant Mothers
Feast Day: May 22
Patron Saint of
Impossible or Lost Causes
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 This
statue is located in the niche in the left rear of St.Leo's. |
St. Rita was born at Roccaporena
near Spoleto, Umbria, Italy. She married at age 12 to Paolo
Mancini. Her parents arranged her marriage, despite the fact
that she repeatedly begged them to allow her to enter a convent.
Mancini was a rich, quick-tempered, immoral man, who made many
enemies in the region. St. Rita endured his insults, abuse,
and infidelities for 18 years, and bore two sons with Mancini,
Giangiacomo Antonio and Paolo Maria. Although she tried to
raise them with Catholic values, her sons were unholy for most
of their lives.
Toward the end of her husband's life, St. Rita helped convert
him to live in a more pious manner. Although Mancini became
more congenial, his allies betrayed him, and he was violently
stabbed to death. Before his death, he repented to St. Rita
and the Church, and she forgave him for his transgressions
against her.
After Mancini's murder, her sons wished to exact revenge on
their father's murderers. Knowing murder was wrong, she tried
to persuade them from retaliating, but to no avail. She, instead,
prayed to God for Him to take away the lives of her sons instead
of seeing them commit such a terrible sin. In religious history,
God heard St. Rita's words and her sons died of natural causes
a year later.
Entering the monastery
After the deaths of her husband and sons, St. Rita desired
to enter the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene at Cascia but
was spurned for being a widow, as virginity was required for
entry into the convent. However, she persisted in her cause
and was given a condition before the convent could accept her;
the difficult task of reconciling her family with her husband's
murderers. She was able to resolve the conflicts between the
families and, at the age of 36, was allowed to enter the monastery.
However, her actual entrance into the monastery has been described
as a miracle. During the night, when the doors to the monastery
were locked and the sisters were asleep, St. Rita was miraculously
transported into the convent by her patron saints Saint John
the Baptist, Saint Augustine, and Saint Nicholas of Tolentino.
When she was found inside the convent in the morning and the
sisters learned of how she entered, they could not turn her
away.
She remained at the monastery, living by the Augustinian Rule,
until her death.
Beatification and canonizationStatue of St. Rita at Saint Leonard
of Port Maurice Church in the North End of Boston
St. Rita was beatified by Urban VIII in 1627, to whose private
secretary Fausto Cardinal Poli, born less than ten miles (16
km) from her birthplace, much of the impetus behind her cult
is due; she was canonized on May 24, 1900 by Pope Leo XIII.
Her feast day is the whole day on May 22.
Symbols
The forehead wound
One day, while living at the convent Rita said, "Please
let me suffer like you, Divine Saviour". Suddenly, a thorn
from a figure of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ fell from
the crown of thorns and wounded Rita's forehead. As a result,
depictions of St. Rita show a forehead wound to represent this
event. The wound became a symbol on St Rita's forehead.
The rose and fig
One of the common versions of the story about the importance
of the rose (and fig) is set before St. Rita's entry into the
convent.
Another version is set near the end of her life, when St. Rita
was bedridden in the convent. A cousin visited her and asked
her if she desired anything from her old home. St. Rita responded
by asking for a rose and a fig from the garden. It was January
and her cousin did not expect to find anything due to the snowy
weather. However, when her relative went to the house, a single
blooming rose was found in the garden as well as a fully ripened
and edible fig, and her cousin brought the rose and fig back
to St. Rita at the convent. The rose bush is still alive and
often in bloom today.
The rose is thought to represent God's love for Rita and Rita's
ability to intercede on behalf of lost causes or impossible
cases. Rita is often depicted holding roses or with roses nearby.
On her feast day, churches and shrines of St. Rita provide
roses to the congregation that are blessed by priests during
Mass.
The Bees
In the parish church of Laarne, near Ghent, there is a statue
of Saint Rita in which several bees are featured. This depiction
originates from the story of St. Rita's baptism as an infant.
On the day after her baptism, her family noticed a swarm of
white bees flying around her as she slept in her crib. However,
the bees peacefully entered and exited her mouth without causing
her any harm or injury. Instead of being alarmed for her safety,
her family was mystified by this sight.
Interpretations of the story believe the bees represented her
subsequent beatification by Pope Urban VIII (whose coat of
arms featured three bees).A Cathedral dedicated to Saint Rita
de Cascia in the Apostolic Vicariate of Bontoc-Lagawe, in Bontoc,
Mountain Province, Philippines.
Legacy
A large sanctuary of Saint Rita was built in the early 20th
century in Cascia. The sanctuary and the house where she was
born are among the most active pilgrimage sites of Umbria.
Saint Rita is the patron saint of "impossible or lost
causes." Her intercession is also sought by abused women.
Recently, St. Rita has been referred to[citation needed] as
the patron saint of baseball, due to the several references
made to her in the Walt Disney movie The Rookie, in which the
chances of Dennis Quaid's character of playing professional
baseball is considered a lost cause. This has sparked a small
movement in Roman Catholic baseball circles of considering
St. Rita the patron saint of the sport: in support of the connection
religious medals have been printed with an image of St. Rita
on one side and a batter on the other.e:
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