St. Rita of Cascia
Married at twelve to a violent man and widowed by murder, she begged Heaven to stop her sons taking revenge, then entered the Augustinians at Cascia.
Canonized 1900
St. Rita of Cascia (Catholic Encyclopedia)
- Catholic Encyclopedia (1907-1913), 'St. Rita of Cascia'. Born at Rocca Porena in the diocese of Spoleto in 1386, died at the Augustinian convent of Cascia in 1456. Married at twelve, in obedience to her parents, to 'a man extremely cruel and ill-tempered', and a wife and mother for eighteen years until he was murdered. Canonized 24 May 1900. The article was written before the calendar was reformed in 1969, so it is not the source for her feast day. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13064a.htm
- Universal Calendar, 22 May — 'St Rita of Cascia, Religious' (optional memorial), from the Liturgy Office of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. https://www.liturgyoffice.org.uk/Calendar/Universal/MayUC.shtml
- Her history is rated traditional rather than documented. The life of her that survives was written around the time she was beatified, by an Augustinian called Jacob Carelicci, working from two older biographies. Nothing written in her own lifetime has come down.