Oh Rita, woman of Cascia,
Who carried burden upon burden,
Yet, sought more suffering
By accepting Christ’s thorn,
And now pleads to relieve
Others’ misfortune.
Clyde L. Borg
Clyde L Borg is a retired high school teacher. He has been writing poetry and nonfiction sinc1998.
Some of his work has appeared in History Magazine, Primo Magazine and Leaves Magazine. He
resides in Fords, New Jersey.
Editor’s Note: Like a typical “Italian girl” Rita was married off at a young age. She endured eighteen years of marriage with a brutally abusive husband. Her sons then took up the cause of a bitter blood feud among families. Rita’s prayer healed all of that! At sixty she received a partial stigmata of a thorn in her forehead. She died in 1457 and like many before her all wounds miraculously disappeared upon death. See for yourself in the image above. That is indeed Rita in the shrine at Cascia and incorrupt after 657 years! Rightfully so, she is the patron saint of impossible causes. Thanks Clyde for the reminder that as Catholics we always have “a great cloud of witnesses” backing us up.