MIRACLES WROUGHT BY GOD THROUGH RITA'S
INTERCESSION BEFORE HER BEATIFICATION
The primary object of miracles is to establish the Catholic religion,
and this is the reason why the Son of God and His disciples performed
so many miraculous works that filled the world with amazement and
invited men to embrace the faith. Even when the kingdom of Christ had
been established miracles did not altogether cease, but rather it
pleased God for His greater glory to raise up miracle workers in every
age for the edification of the faithful, to place a more distinctive
mark on His Church, and to confirm His followers in the faith. A
little before Rita's time there were chosen, amongst others, St.
Nicholas of Tolentine, St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Bernardine of Siena, St.
Francis of Paul to be famous ministers of His omnipotence and mercy.
Then followed St. Rita, who, although during her life she did not
perform marvels as did these Apostolic men, yet after her death became
celebrated, and is still celebrated throughout the whole world for the
many great miracles with which it pleased the Lord to publish the
merits of His beloved spouse.
But as St. John the Evangelist has said, speaking of our Lord, so very
numerous were the miracles He wrought that only a small proportion of
them is recorded in the Sacred Writings, we may say, preserving due
proportion, much the same of Rita. For not only have lapse of time and
carelessness deprived us of the memory of many of the miracles worked
through her intercession, but even in the present, when nearly every
part of the world is ringing with the fame of her great prodigies,
authentic testimony is often wanting, and sometimes we are at a loss
for a simple relation of the facts. We must therefore perforce be
contented with recording a certain number of them taken from the
process of her beatification, and we shall follow the order in which
they are related by those writers of her life who have preceded us.
The series of miracles of which we have authentic knowledge begins from
the third day after the saint's death. We give it here in compendium.
On the 25th of the month of May in which St. Rita died a certain
Baptist d'Angelo of Col Giacone, in the territory of Cascia, who had
completely lost his sight, having heard of the miracles which God was
working through her intercession in those first days after her death,
had his faith quickly aroused, and with confidence recommended himself
to her patronage, and in an instant his sight was restored.
Two days later a woman named Lucrezia di Paolo, from Col Forcella, a
village also in the territory of Cascia, whose body was swollen and
doubled up through advanced years and owing to a sort of dropsy from
which she suffered, went to where the saint's body was lying, and,
having prayed there with strong faith, was enabled to return to her
home free from disease and in perfect health.
On the same day another woman named Frances, the wife of Antonio
Fucelli of Cascia, who had been deaf for five years, was praying before
the body of the saint in the presence of a multitude of people. On a
sudden she felt that her hearing was restored. The truth of this
miracle is attested by the people who were present.
Two days later still a man named Salimbene d'Antonio, from
Poggio-Primocaso, one of whose fingers had lost all power of motion and
was dried up for many years, went to pray that he might be cured, and
touched the saint's sacred body with his powerless finger; he, too, was
instantaneously cured, and went back to his home rejoicing.
On the last day of May a woman called Giacomuccia di Leonardo, from
Ocosce, a village quite close to Cascia, was miraculously cured of
grievous pains, from which she had been tormented for two years, and
which had reduced her to a state of extreme weakness. This grace was
granted to her after having prayed most fervently for eight days, at
the end of which her persevering faith was rewarded by her restoration
to health.
Frances di Giovanni, from Bisella, in Nursia, who was deaf and dumb
from birth, was brought on the same day to visit the miraculous body of
the saint. She ardently recommended herself to her patronage, and
performed the acts of devotion possible to a deaf mute. Speech and
hearing were thereupon suddenly granted to her. The first words she
uttered were 'Ave Maria,' a fact which amazed her parents and the
people who witnessed the miracle.
Still another miracle was wrought by the omnipotence of God, through
Rita's intercession, before the end of that month of May. A certain
Lucrezia, wife of Ser Paolo of Golforalla, who was all swollen with
dropsy, and whose case the physicians judged incurable, had herself
brought before the saint's body, and there with the strongest
confidence begged that her heart's desire might be granted. She, too,
was restored to health and strength.
On the 2nd of June in the same year a youth named Bernard, the son of
Matteo Del-re, from Ocosce, who was suffering from the gravel and was
in very great pain, was brought to where the saint's coffin was by his
father, who besought for him the pity of the saint, and was granted the
grace he prayed for.
The next day a man called Spirito d'Angelo, from Cascia, through the
intercession of St. Rita, was cured of chronic sciatica, from which he
had suffered grievous pain for four years.
Four days later a young girl from Rocca, in the territory of Nursia,
whose name was Maria d'Angelo, who had been deaf and dumb from birth,
went with her parents to do homage to the saint of Cascia, and, like
Frances di Giovanni, she, too, obtained hearing and speech. When this
miracle was made known the girl had to get into the pulpit to satisfy
the pious curiosity of the people, and there for the first time she
pronounced the sweet name of Mary and the names of other saints, and so
great was the wonder of the people that a thanksgiving procession was
formed, in which the clergy took part, and a sermon was preached by Fr.
Giovanni Paoletti of Cascia.
On the 13th of the same month Francesco, son of Antonio Pasquali, of
the village of San Cipriano, in the district of Amatrice, who was also
a deaf mute, was brought by his father and others to Rita's glorious
tomb, and departed thence with the full use of his senses, astonished
at the novelty of his sensations and the greatness of the miracle.
Another miracle took place five days after in favour of Lucia di Sante
Lalli, from the town of S. Maria, in the territory of Nursia. One of
her eyes was entirely blind for fifteen years, and the other was nearly
so. She went, accompanied by her mother, to visit the holy body of the
saint in Cascia, and remained there praying for fifteen days, at the
end of which, through her faith and the intercession of the saint, she
regained her sight, as she had ardently desired.
After describing the last-mentioned miracle there is a break in the
ancient records, and we read of no other miracles till thirty years
later. Under the date of the 3rd of June, 1487, we find that Pietro di
Giovanni of Paganelli, and his wife, a native of Nursia, made a vow to
St. Rita for the restoration to health of their son Pietro, who was so
tongue-tied that he could not utter a word. The saint consoled them,
for in a short time their son was in perfect health, with full use of
speech.
A daughter of Gregorio d'Antonio of Col Giacone, who had lost the power
of speech after a severe illness, recovered it after being brought to
the saint's tomb. This fact is mentioned under the date of the 22nd of
June in the same year.
About the same time Sante di Mariano of Rocca Porena, whilst playing
bull, was thrown violently against one of his companions, who had a
knife in his belt, and was accidentally so severely wounded in the
ventral region that the physicians despaired of curing him. He had
recourse to the saint, and although he was not cured instantly, yet he
immediately began to improve, and ultimately he was restored to perfect
health.
On the 18th of May, about two years afterwards, Angela, wife of
Domenico Berardi of Logna, a town in the territory of Cascia, whose arm
was crippled and so diseased that it brought on feverish feelings every
day, had recourse to the invisible virtue of that holy body, and was
completely healed.
Father Nicola Galli, who had been confessor of the nuns in the convent
in which the saint lived, and who wrote her life, which to a great
extent we are making use of in this chapter, and who declares that he
took his account of Rita's miracles from the process of her
beatification given him by the nuns, relates as the sixteenth of her
miracles that a certain Giovanni di Rocca Porena was restored from
death to life through the merits of the saint, but he mentions no
circumstances.
A woman named Fior di Pier Antonio had a son named Spirito, who
suffered from a sort of insanity, which doctors would call
_lycanthropy_ (a species of insanity in which the patient imagines
himself to be a wolf), owing to which he was given to wandering through
the woods and mountains, and felt a tendency to hurl himself from high
places. His afflicted mother, seeing that all the remedies of science
were useless, had recourse to St. Rita, and was consoled by her son's
being restored to health and his right mind.
About the year 1491 a certain Vannetta, daughter-in-law of Ser Antonio
di Nardo, from the town of Fogliano, near Cascia, was suffering from so
dangerous an affection of the throat that she could swallow neither
food nor drink, and therefore believed that she had reached the end of
her days. Once, on being awakened from a heavy sleep, which her
friends thought was the lethargy of death, she complained of being
deprived by them of the beautiful vision she had been enjoying. To
their questions about her vision she replied that she had seen St.
Rita, who had called to her and touched her throat with her finger and
disappeared. It was found that the cure was not simply imaginary, but
that the girl was freed from her disease.
About the same time a boy named Amico, the son of Antonio of Col
Forcella, who was suffering great pain from gravel, was recommended by
his mother to the powerful intercession of the saint, and her faith was
rewarded by his instantaneous cure.
In the following year Giovan Marino, of Logna, was cured of a disease
called _serpentina_, through which his whole body was paralysed, for it
pleased God to hear, through the intercession of Rita, the fervent
prayers offered in his behalf by his aunt Donna Santa.
Towards the end of the same year Pier Marino, son of Marino Bruchi of
Nursia, who had received two mortal wounds in a scuffle, had recourse
to the patronage of Rita, and not in vain, for he was seen to get
better, and through persevering prayer was soon restored to health.
Three other miracles are described as having taken place about this
time through Rita's intercession. The first was the healing of Donna
Santa (perhaps the same as was mentioned before), daughter of Domenico
of Logna, who was suffering from headaches, and tumours, and swelling
of the throat. She besought the saint to obtain her restoration to
health, and vowed to send a florin as offering to her convent. Rita
heard her prayers, and became her advocate before the Giver of every
good gift, who instantly gave her back the health she prayed for.
The next was that wrought in favour of a certain woman named Giacoma,
the wife of Martino of S. Anatolia, in the territory of Cascia, who
broke her shoulder-blade and her thigh by falling from a height on a
rock. She was tortured by most violent pains, against which she could
find no better remedy than to have recourse to Rita, to whose convent
she vowed to present a half-florin. Her prayers were heard, and she
was instantly cured.
The third of the cases, registered under date of the 18th of November,
happened thus: Antonio, the son of Giuliano and Gemma of Nursia, was
lying mortally wounded and left for dead, having received fourteen
wounds, one of which had almost severed his shoulder from his body.
His mother and his sister Maria determined to trust themselves to the
help of heaven, and had recourse to the intercession of St. Rita. They
therefore made a vow to visit her venerated body and to bring a waxen
image. Hardly had they made the vow than the young man was cured of
his wounds.
Lucchessa, the wife of Giovan Marino of Collecurioso, now destroyed, in
the territory of Cascia, had been possessed by the devil for many days.
She was brought to Rita's grave, and there was delivered from that
molestation through the saint's intercession. When this favour was
conferred there were many present, religious and seculars, who also
bore witness to the horrible yells uttered by the infernal spirit as it
left the body.
In 1494 Monica di Colantonio of Colle, in the district of Nursia, was
cured of a fistula solely because her father, Domenico, had gone to
Cascia to honour the saint, to whose efficacious patronage he had
recommended himself.
Towards the end of the same year, on the 16th of December, a man named
Giovanni Andrea, son of Giovannuccio, from Atri, a town in the
territory of Cascia, came to Cascia to thank his protectress Rita, who,
he affirmed, had formerly delivered him from a serious illness, and had
saved him again from imminent danger of death when a chestnut-tree had
fallen on him and threatened to crush him.
Two years later a certain Paolo, son of Giovanni, a native of
Collecurioso, whose son Angelo was suffering torture from the gravel,
made a vow to bring his son to return thanks at the saint's tomb if he
were cured, and to have the miracle painted on a tablet. His faith was
rewarded by his son being cured.
In the same year Andrea d'Angelo, from Onelli, in the Cascia district,
was cured, through the intercession of the saint, from an illness by
which he was confined to bed for ten months.
In 1501 a woman named Perna, wife of Marino di Aliena, who was
tormented by evil spirits, was delivered from them by favour of the
saint, to whom she had had recourse.
At the same time Giovanni di Bartolomeo, from Roccatervi, in the
neighbourhood of Cascia, who had cut a vein near his left instep eight
years before, and whose case was considered incurable, besought St.
Rita with fervent prayers to come to his aid. When he perceived that
his prayers were heard, and that a cure impossible to human science had
been effected, he made an offering on the 10th of June of a silver
crown to the church that guards the saint's body.
Pier Angelo, son of Pier Domenico, from the neighbourhood of Spoleto,
had fled in the year 1503 from that district to escape an epidemic that
was raging there. When he thought the danger was past he returned, but
one of his daughters was seized by the malady. The afflicted father
bethought him of seeking the protection of the miracle-worker St. Rita.
He promised to visit her venerated tomb and to make an offering of four
carlins. His faith was rewarded by his daughter's deliverance.
Vannuccio di Sante of Foligno, one of whose arms was withered, had
recourse to the saint to obtain the favour of being cured, and made a
vow to offer the figure of an arm in wax. The power of his arm was
immediately restored. He determined thereupon to fulfil his vow on a
certain Sunday, but when the day came he changed his mind, and meant to
go to Nursia. But he paid the penalty of his ungrateful fickleness,
for he was seized with such a pain in one of his feet that he could not
walk. Thereupon he resolved to fulfil immediately his vow, and he
added a second one of bringing also the waxen figure of a foot. He was
relieved of the pain, and hesitated no longer to fulfil his double vow.
This happened in 1506.
It happened about the year 1510 that a certain Messer Francesco of
Monferrato, who was five years bedridden owing to gangrene of the
throat, saw St. Rita appear to him in a dream. He paid no attention to
the vision, but the saint appeared to him a second and a third time.
On the third occasion she informed him who she was and whence, and
exhorted him to go to her tomb; she then touched his throat, and he was
restored to health. He arose from his bed cured, and set out for
Tuscany, and from thence he went to Rome, for he did not know where
Cascia was, where Rita was buried. But in Rome he found a farmer from
Nursia, who gave him the information he needed, and when he arrived at
Cascia he made an offering of a box full of silver coins, had a
procession of thanksgiving celebrated, and on the occasion of it a
sermon was preached by Fr. Ludovico of Cascia, a Franciscan.
Giovan Angelo, the son of Leonardo, from Ocosce, in the district of
Cascia, was freed on the 26th of April, 1525, from an evil spirit by
which he was obsessed, and to express his gratitude for the favour,
obtained through Rita's intercession, made an offering of four carlins
to the convent, a thousand wooden stakes for the vineyard, and his own
services as long as he lived.
In the same year and month another man obsessed by the devil, whose
name was Bernardino, the son of Domenico Saccomadi, from the town of
San Giovanni, in the Cascia district, was delivered from the infernal
enemy after being brought to visit the body of St. Rita, before which
public prayers were recited for his liberation.
On the 26th of December of the same year a son of Giovan Francesco of
Nardi, in the suburbs of Cascia, a child three years old, after a very
serious illness, which lasted for thirteen days, was become quite
blind, and could take no nourishment, and was, in fact, at the point of
death. The father went to Cascia to beg the intercession of St. Rita,
and to his prayers were added those of the nuns, who also gave him a
little piece of Rita's habit. He returned home, and with firm faith
touched his son's eyes with the relic he had received, and invoked the
name of Rita, and immediately it was seen that the grace he had sought
had been granted. As a sign of gratitude he brought an offering of
eight florins' worth of articles to be used in the services of the
saint's church.
A similar miracle happened towards the year 1535, in the case of
Constantino, the son of Scolastica and Giacomo di Pietro Zocchi, from
Agriano, in the district of Nursia. He, too, was suffering from a
mortal illness when his mother made a vow in his favour to St. Rita,
and he was cured on the instant. To fulfil her vow and testify her
gratitude, Scolastica presented a vestment to the church on the 1st of
June.
About the same time it also happened that a little girl of ten years,
called Antonia, who was the daughter of Giovanni di Silvestro of Rocca
Porena, fell into the river Corno, then very much swollen by floods,
and was swept along in the strong current for nearly half a mile.
Before losing consciousness she offered herself to St. Rita, and the
waters bore her to the river bank as one returned to life from the dead.
Donna Brigida, wife of the noble Marsiglio di Marino of Nursia, was
also the recipient of a singular favour from St. Rita in the year 1548.
She was lying ill in bed, despaired of by the physicians and near
death. A certain Girolamo di Giovanni, who occupied a room not far
from where the sick woman was lying, twice heard a voice commanding her
to make a vow to the saint. At the second time of hearing he woke the
servants, the vow was registered by the invalid, who instantly spoke.
She was cured without the application of other remedies, and the same
day the little silver crown she vowed to send to Cascia was despatched.
The year after a certain Ferrantino di Benedetto of Collecurioso, in
the Cascia district, was so terrified by a phantom of the night that he
fell into convulsions and became delirious. St. Rita, to whom he had
remembered to pray, appeared to him in one of his lucid intervals and
advised him to go to her tomb and pray there, and that he would there
regain his health. He went on St. James's Day, and although he was as
ill as usual whilst going, no sooner had he reached the blessed tomb
than he was cured in body and mind.
Nicola, the son of Francesco Cascianelli of Antrodoco, in October,
1562, had recourse to the saint to heal him of a chronic illness,
promising to make an offering of three crowns at her sepulchre. He,
too, was instantaneously cured.
On the last day of May, in the year 1563, there happened another
noteworthy miracle wrought in favour of Donna Cheava di Paolo, of the
Castle of Uncciafora. Two months before she had an apoplectic fit, and
during all the intervening time her tender mother could obtain no
relief for her, and was herself condemned to useless weeping, till she
determined to make a vow to the saint. After two days she had the
happiness of seeing her daughter restored to her former health. On the
very day of the recovery the mother went to Cascia to perform her vow
at Rita's tomb, and the assembled people celebrated the miracle with a
procession.
Four years afterwards, on the 23rd of April, Angelina di Marco of
Poggio-Primocaso was prostrate at the saint's tomb, returning thanks to
her for having saved her nephew, who had been at the point of death
after falling down a precipice.
Many other wonderful cures are recorded in the process of beatification
without a date being mentioned. We read, for example, that a woman
from Monte Leone named Pazienza, who was obsessed by the devil, was
freed from her great misfortune on being brought to the tomb of the
saint; that Ristorio Sarsio from Amatrice, who was brought almost to
death's door by pains in his sides, was cured whilst in the act of
making a vow in the saint's honour; that a child of four
years--Giovanni Andrea, son of Fabiano Fortunati--who had fallen into a
vessel of boiling water, and thereby lost sight and speech, as soon as
his mother had asked the saint's intercession for him, again spoke and
recovered sight, and in a short time was as well as ever; that a
certain Bernardino di Tiberio, who had become blind of an eye from a
wound, was brought to the saint's tomb, and instantly regained the
sight of his eye whilst the coffin was being uncovered; and that a
woman from Logna, who was returning from Cascia after being cured there
miraculously, suggested to another woman to make a vow to St. Rita in
order that a daughter of hers who was blind might recover sight. The
daughter promised St. Rita to become a nun in the Augustinian convent
in Cascia, and her vision was immediately restored. She was afterwards
Prioress of the convent for thirty-five years. Fr. Galli, who wrote
the saint's life, through fear of wearying his readers contented
himself with simply alluding to many other like miracles and wonderful
favours worked by St. Rita. Most other writers of her life have
followed his example, except that a few have given some little
additions. We, too, shall imitate these older examples, and close our
list of miracles worked by St. Rita before her beatification.