#stop fear

mod

Fear has always been, and will always be, a means of control of the masses by those in power or by those who would seize power.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Rita (Margherita Lotti) was born in 1381 in the city of Roccaporena a small suburb of Cascia (near Spoleto, Umbria, Italy).

She was married at age twelve to a nobleman named Paolo Mancini.

Source of picture: https://mexiconewsdaily.com

Her husband, Paolo Mancini, was known to be a rich, quick-tempered, immoral man, who had many enemies in the region of Cascia. Rita endured his insults, physical abuse, and infidelities for many years.

According to popular tales, through humility, kindness, and patience, Rita was able to convert her husband into a better person. Rita eventually bore two sons, Giangiacomo (Giovanni) Antonio, and Paulo Maria, and brought them up in the Christian faith.

As time went by and the family feud between the Chiqui and Mancini families became more intense, Paolo Mancini became congenial, but his allies betrayed him and he was violently stabbed to death by a member of the feuding family. Upon the murder of her husband by another feuding family, she sought to dissuade her sons from revenge.

Rita gave a public pardon at Paolo's funeral to her husband's murderers. Paolo Mancini's brother, Bernardo, was said to have continued the feud and hoped to convince Rita's sons to seek revenge. Bernardo convinced Rita's sons to leave their manor and live at the Mancini villa ancestral home. As her sons grew, their characters began to change as Bernardo became their tutor. Rita's sons wished to avenge their father's murder. Rita, fearing that her sons would lose their souls, tried to persuade them from retaliating, but to no avail. Accordingly, she petitioned God to take her sons rather than submit them to possible mortal sin and murder. Her sons died of dysentery a year later, which pious Catholics believe was God's answer to her prayer, taking them by natural death rather than risk them committing a mortal sin punishable by Hell.

After the deaths of her husband and sons, Rita desired to enter the monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene in Cascia but was turned away. She was given a condition before the convent could accept her: the task of reconciling her family with her husband's murderers. She was able to resolve the conflicts between the families and, at the age of thirty-six, was allowed to enter the monastery.

 Source of picture: https://wikipedia.org

Pious Catholic legends later recount that Rita was transported into the monastery of Saint Magdalene via levitation at night into the garden courtyard by her three patron saints. She remained at the monastery, living by the Augustinian Rule, until her death from tuberculosis on 22 May 1457.

Source of picture: https://catholiccompany.com

Sanctuary of Saint Rita at Roccaporena, Italy

Source of picture: https://wikipedia.org

Basilica of Saint Rita at Cascia

Source of picture: https://wikipedia.org