May. 22 Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter; Opt. Mem. of St. Rita of Cascia, Religious, Opt. Mem.

Today is the Optional Memorial of St. Rita Cascia (1386-1457). After eighteen years of married life, St. Rita lost, by death, her husband and her two sons. Called afterwards to the religious state, she professed the Rule of St. Augustine at Cascia her native town, in central Italy. In a life-long and terrible malady her patience, cheerfulness, and union by prayer with almighty God, never failed her. Jesus imprinted on her brow the mark of a thorn from His crown. She died May 22, 1456, and both in life and after death has worked many miracles. She was not canonized until 1900 by Pope Leo XIII.