IMMEMORIAL WORSHIP OF ST. RITA
It had been provided by the sapient Pontiff Alexander III. three
centuries before Rita's death that no one, however remarkable for
holiness of life, and dying in the fame of sanctity, should receive
public and ecclesiastical worship, unless after the approbation of the
Holy Apostolic See. But it must be admitted that Rita's sanctity and
miracles had more effect than any decree that interfered with the
devotion of so many, and, indeed, the decree was unknown to most of
them. Hardly was Rita dead than there was a great concourse of the
people of Cascia gathered at the feet of the sacred body, with hands
raised in veneration and entreaty, beseeching the favour of their new
protectress. The constant and wonderful works which it then pleased
God to perform to the advantage of those faithful people justified
their confidence, and served to augment their fervour and at the same
time the veneration and glory of the saint. Following the example of
the people of Cascia, and incited by the fame of Rita's miracles, the
peoples of other places, near and far, hastened to offer her their
religious homage also, in order to become participants in her favours,
or to make votive offerings, or to leave memorials of graces received.
As a consequence, lamps and candles were soon burning around her
venerated tomb; her picture became honoured, and many votive tablets
and gifts in ever-increasing numbers were offered. Hence, also, devout
processions began to be celebrated on the occasions of the more
extraordinary miracles, and hence her feast began to be kept on the
anniversary day of her death, or, rather, of her birth to immortal life.
This singular devotion to the saint never declined; it rather acquired
greater vigour and wider bounds as years went on. The processions took
place only in Cascia in the beginning, but in the course of time they
began to be held by the faithful of the neighbouring towns and
villages, who had begun to invoke, as they still invoke, the favour of
their common advocate. These pious demonstrations of public and solemn
veneration are usually celebrated about the time of her feast, and are
always accompanied by pious offerings. The feast itself, which at
first used to be observed in an ordinary way, came to be celebrated
even magnificently when the devotion increased, and to be regarded as a
holiday of obligation. The Offices of the Church, which were attended
by great crowds of people, many of them from distant places, were made
more impressive by the aid of the choicest music and the rich
decoration of the church. But what has ever caused the greatest
edification in connection with this festival was to see the number of
strangers, and especially women, who came on pilgrimage in bare feet
and humble attire.
From that period the convent and church, which were formerly known as
St. Mary Magdalen's, came, in a beautiful way, to be called, as they
are so called at present, by the title of St. Rita. For the pilgrims,
as they approached the goal of their journey, had no other care than to
find out where the convent of St. Rita was, and on their return were
used to say that they had been in the country and in the Church of St.
Rita. Hence that manner of speaking, which has prevailed from an early
date, has finally succeeded in giving its fixed name to that venerated
shrine.
It is also deserving of notice here that the custom of calling her the
Blessed, which had been introduced even during the century after her
death, in a short time became public and general. About eight years
after her most glorious death the learned Cardinal Girolamo Seripando
had already placed Rita on his list of the Saints and Blesseds of the
Augustinian Order; Panfilo, Crusenio, Gelsomini, and Ferrario had in
their works already confirmed these titles and honours; the
Fathers-General of the Order were already accustomed in their official
documents and letters patent to style her either by the title of
Blessed or that of Saint, and distinguished her convent by the same
title. In a word, the general body of the faithful had already
beatified her long before the Vicar of Jesus Christ had her name
inserted in the Roman Martyrology or had granted an Office in her
honour. Now, if the worship given to Rita was so great before it was
allowed by the Church to honour her publicly, we may imagine how much
it was increased when the decree of the Supreme Head of the Church, who
could do no less than add his voice to the general chorus of praise,
set his seal and approval on it. Religious veneration to the famous
Rita then speedily spread throughout the whole earth, and together with
the people, Kings, Cardinals, Prelates, and personages of the greatest
distinction, bent their knees in devotion before the humble servant of
God, and deemed themselves happy in her patronage. Amongst the
countries remarkable for devotion to her, the kingdoms of Spain and
Portugal were pre-eminent, both in their European possessions and their
vast colonies in the Western world; for throughout them all the name of
Rita was glorious, and their monarchs gave the most edifying examples
of piety and munificence. And it was in these Catholic dominions that,
owing to the very many great miracles she wrought, she began to be
known by the title of '_the Saint of the Impossible_,' and in them hard
to find a church which has not an altar dedicated to her honour. So
much was her veneration extended that the inhabitants of the city of
St. Sebastian, in Brazil, made a supplication to Pope Benedict XIII. to
obtain the extraordinary faculty of consecrating a church under the
invocation of B. Rita, and when the faculty had been granted their
pious intention was soon carried into effect. Seventy years before
that Monsignor Giuseppe Cruciani of Cascia, chamberlain of Pope
Alexander VII., had obtained possession of the Church of St. Blase in
Rome, with the intention of rededicating it to B. Rita, and to-day we
find it so dedicated, and it has become the church proper to the people
of Cascia in Rome. Still earlier, and immediately after her
beatification, Monsignor Fausto Poli, himself a native of Cascia, who
was then Maggiordomo to Pope Urban VIII., and afterwards became
Cardinal and Bishop of Orvieto, acquired possession of the house in
which the saint lived during her married life, and at his own expense
had it converted into a little chapel; and so it remains to the
present, and in it is preserved as a relic the mantle she wore in the
world.
We must not pass over in silence a noteworthy fact recorded by some
biographers of the saint, which is confirmed by a tradition in Rocca
Porena, and sworn to in a deposition included in the first process. It
is this: The saint's room received its light whilst she dwelt in it,
and until it was changed into a chapel, from a little window, or,
rather, aperture, in the roof, and there, as is piously believed, the
angels used to appear who came to comfort her in her sorrows. When she
entered the convent others dwelt there until the time of her
beatification. Her successors in the house--and amongst them was a
priest, Don Diamante di Pier Felice, who was examined as a witness in
the first process--tried to close the aperture; but all their efforts
were fruitless, for as often as they closed it they found it opened
again, and it was, moreover, observed that through that opening neither
rain nor snow ever entered.
The convent cell, too, which Rita sanctified by so many years of her
presence, by her profound meditations, and by the pitiless scourging of
her body, and where the two coffins in which she was first buried are
at present preserved, began to be held in veneration from an early
period and to be looked upon as a private oratory. In brief, it is an
undoubted fact that the religious honours shown to our saint began from
the very time of her death, and as time went on they increased without
any interruption and became more distinguished, till veneration to Rita
was spread in a singular manner throughout the whole Catholic world.
Thus are the humble exalted by God, and thus are the just in the
everlasting memory of the ages.