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| St. Rita of Cascia |
St. Rita of Cascia–And the Legend
of the Rose
For four years
after her return from Rome, St. Rita suffered more pain from the wound on her
forehead than before she made the journey to Rome, so that her life became
really a martyrdom. Moved with compassion for her suffering, or pleased with
her wonderful patience, the Son of God came from Heaven to visit and console
her with His Divine presence. This Divine visit filled the soul of St. Rita
with extreme delight and gratification, and her heart was so consumed by the
words of her divine Spouse, that, having sunk her understanding in the extreme
bliss she enjoyed from gazing on the Divine beauty of Jesus, she would have broken
the earthly bonds that detained her soul in the prison of her body, to enjoy
forever the happiness she saw, were she permitted to do so. St. Rita gazed
attentively at her beloved Spouse, who, like a flower from the Heavenly
paradise, and a lily from the celestial valleys, invited her to satisfy her
thirst and fill her heart with delights by enjoying the sweetness His Divine
presence cast around her. But recognizing that the ocean of happiness in which
she was engulfed was only temporal, and thirsting to enjoy the eternal, she
ardently desired to follow her Divine Spouse, who disappeared from her view
after He had given her a foretaste of what His chosen ones enjoy in Heaven.
After Our Lord
had disappeared, there remained in the heart of St. Rita so deep a wound that
she became so ill with Divine love, suffering so violent an attack of fever,
that she was obliged to betake herself to her poor and hard bed, whereon she
lay, more dead than alive, without anyone knowing the cause of her illness.
Thus for four long and weary years, St. Rita suffered the pains of love, in
order that the gold of her patience might be refined and that she might make a
new ring, set with the most precious jewels, which she would wear at the
celebration of her espousals with her Divine Lord when she made her entrance
into the Kingdom of His glory. Besides the pains of her illness, she suffered
the torments of the wound on her forehead, and these torments were made more
poignant by the continual movements of the little worms which had also
increased in number. But anxious to suffer more and more, St. Rita bore every
pain of her agony with the most admirable patience, and during all the years of
her illness, she never uttered a single sigh or word of complaint, but respired
rather, in all her actions, the celestial love that was consuming her heart
with the flames of the Divine fire. Having become ill with Divine love, because
her beloved Spouse had left her after a short visit, St. Rita experienced a
love, strong as death, which, however, did not take away her life but rather
spared it, so that she actually suffered the pains and agony of death without
dying. However, in the midst of all her afflictions, St. Rita sought no human
relief. Her chief delight was to feed her soul and body with the Bread that
came down from Heaven, and to quench her thirst with the bitter chalice of the
Passion of her Divine Spouse, Jesus Christ. Thus for four years her life was
really miraculous, nourished only by the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.
To show how dear
St. Rita was to her Divine Spouse and to make manifest the fact that St. Rita
can obtain even the impossible from God, if she asks it, Divine providence
disposed her, while she was ill, to ask that a flower and two figs be brought
her from the little garden which St. Rita at one time owned and cultivated with
her own hands—a garden which could be truly called the inheritance of God, and
the garden of her Heavenly Spouse, because she had sold it before entering the
convent and had distributed the proceeds amongst His needy poor.
One day in the
month of January, a cousin of St. Rita's came to the Maddalena Convent to visit
her. The visit was a short one, for that particular day St. Rita was very ill
and suffered much. On taking her leave, her relative asked St. Rita if she
could do any favor for her. "Yes, Cousin," said the Saint;
"bring me a rose from the garden of my old home in Rocca Porrena."
St. Rita's request surprised her cousin, who thought that perhaps her mind was
affected by her illness, and besides, as it was midwinter and the climate of
Rocca Porrena exceedingly cold, her relative and the nuns who were in
attendance could not be persuaded that the rose could be found. Nevertheless,
to humor the Saint, her cousin told her that she would try to fulfill the
errand, though she thought it would be impossible to find what she asked for.
St. Rita responded: "My dear cousin, there is nothing impossible to
God." The security with which St. Rita spoke these words determined her
cousin to set out at once for Rocca Porrena, and to her great astonishment and
amazement, on entering the garden she saw, on a sapless and leafless rosebush,
a beautiful red rose in full bloom. She plucked the rose, and returned to
Cascia as quickly as possible and gave the rose to St. Rita. The Saint received
the rose with great joy and gladness, and a heavenly smile lighted up her
countenance as she kissed it reverently, while her heart gave thanks to God as
she contemplated in that rose her sweet Jesus crowned with thorns. St. Rita
then handed the miraculous flower to the superioress, and from her hand it
passed into the hands of all the nuns, who, after admiring its marvelous
beauty, returned fervent thanks to God, who, to make manifest the sanctity of
their beloved sister Rita, had caused a most beautiful rose to grow in the
midst of a cold winter. To commemorate this miraculous event, roses are blessed
each year in all the churches of the Augustinian Order on the feast of St. Rita
and distributed to the faithful.
Shortly after
the miracle of the rose, God wrought another miracle at the request of St.
Rita. On the occasion of another visit to the convent, in the same month of
January, St. Rita asked her cousin to go and bring two figs she would find on a
certain frozen fig tree in the garden of Rocca Porrena. This time, without the
least doubt in her mind, the woman hastened to bring the figs. She had no
difficulty in finding the tree St. Rita had described, and on it were two ripe
and luscious figs. With no less joy than admiration at seeing this second
miracle, she picked the figs and brought them to St. Rita. St. Rita received
the figs with the greatest joy, and again did the nuns thank and praise God for
having qualified, for the second time, the sanctity of their holy and beloved
sister. But St. Rita, elevating her spirit to a contemplation of the
mysterious, considered the two miracles a warning that the time was near at
hand when she would pass from this life, to enjoy for all eternity the
incorruptible flowers and seasoned fruits of the Celestial paradise.
Taken from St. Rita of Cascia by TAN Books & Publishers, Inc.
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