“In patience and fortitude you are a model of all the states in life.”

Patron of: Bad Marriages

An abused wife, a mother who’s children died, a widow of a murdered husband, and finally, a nun, Saint Rita experienced many lives in her time on earth. Knowing the powerlessness and despair of those in bad marriages she is invoked for help in desperate times. In her own lifetime she was famous for the power of her prayers to change any situation and it was said that she could accomplish the impossible. Canonized almost 500 years after her birth, she is the first declared female saint of the 20th Century. Margarita Lotti was born to an older farming couple in Roccaporena, Italy. She was called Rita because of a vision of an angel her mother had who named the baby while declaring, “You will give birth to a daughter marked with the seal of sanctity, gifted with every virtue, a helper to the helpless and an advocate of the afflicted.” As proof of this prophecy, bees, a sign of divine presence, always hovered over her crib as she slept, never harming or waking her.

Though she had always wanted to be a nun, Rita’s parents feared for her future security as there was a schism in the church and many religious orders were closing their doors. Instead, she had to accept a marriage they contracted for her with a man named Paolo Mancini. Though he was a good provider, he soon proved to be an abusive, promiscuous husband. Settling his personal disputes with violence, Mancini created a tense family environment for Rita and the two sons she had with him. Never wavering in her devotion to God, Rita prayed that her husband would change his ways. After 18 years of marriage, Paolo had a vision of himself as others saw him and begged for his wife’s forgiveness. A lifetime of enemies caught up with Paolo and he was murdered, his mutilated body dumped on his family’s doorstep. Rita begged her two teenaged sons not to pursue a vendetta against his killers, but they refused. She prayed to God to prevent her sons from murdering anyone. Both of them came down with serious illnesses and died before they could act on their vendetta.

Alone in the world, Rita petitioned to join the Augustinian convent. Because several of the nuns there had family members who were involved in Paolo’s murder, the convent refused her, not wanting tensions to carry over from the outside world. Rita prayed and entreated Paolo’s family to forgive his killers. Much to everyone’s surprise, they acquiesced and Rita was admitted to the convent on her third try. While there she spent her days nursing the older nuns and concentrating on Christ’s suffering. When she begged to feel what Christ felt on the cross, a thorn from the crown of thorns on a crucifix struck her on the head and became embedded there. It left a deep wound that never healed. Because this wound became infected and foul smelling Rita was shunned by the other nuns and remained in her cell praying and meditating.

The January before she died, a cousin asked her if there was anything she needed and she asked for a rose from her childhood garden. The cousin was shocked to see that there was indeed two roses growing in that garden in the middle of January. Upon her death, her cell was filled with the smell of roses. Rita is always depicted with the thorn in her head, in her Augustinian habit, meditating on the crucified Christ.

Novena

O holy protectress of those who art in greatest need, O you who shine as a star of hope in the midst of darkness, blessed Saint Rita, bright mirror of God’s grace, in patience and fortitude you are a model of all states in life. I unite my will with the will of God through the merits of my Savior, Jesus Christ, and in particular through his patient wearing of the crown of thorns, which with tender devotion you daily contemplated. Through the merits of the holy Virgin Mary and your own graces and virtues, I ask you to obtain my earnest petition, provided it be for the greater glory of God and my own sanctification. Guide and purify my intention, O holy protectress and advocate, so that I may obtain the pardon of all my sins and the grace to persevere daily, as you did in walking with courage, generosity, and fidelity down the path of life.

(Mention your request). Saint Rita, advocate for the impossible, pray for us.

Saint Rita, advocate of the helpless, pray for us.

(Recite Our Father, Hail Mary and the Glory Be three times each).

VisonsofMary_ebook2016v2It is said that the modern age of Mary was ushered in with the visits paid to Saint Catherine Laboure in 1831. Since then, the Blessed Mother has been seen steadily by seers in almost every country in the world. In this book we relate some of the Marian apparitions that are sanctioned by the Catholic Church; there are thousands more that are well known but unofficial. When Mary visits, she appears in the race of and speaking the language of the person who sees her. She can be sweet and kind or angry and insistent.

The visionaries who see her enjoy no great material reward. They are often
people who have little religious belief. They are usually mocked and harassed by their own community. Many have died young, not having been spared by the parameters of the lives they were born into. Some are honored in their lifetime, some choose to retire from the world, others continue on with their lives, never again experiencing any supernatural or spiritual events. The messages they relay from Mary for the human race are all basically the same, “Do whatever He tells you.”

605—620

Catholic tradition promotes saints for various devotions and in support of numerous causes. These include the feast of St. Dymphna, known for miracles involving mental health, anxieties and general mental wellness and well-being. Historically, St. Dymphna has been attributed to various miracles of healing for those suffering from mental illness.

In a world of stress and anxiety, St. Dymphna can be a source of inspiration and devotion. Many have invoked her name and intercession for friends and family in need of healing from mental illness, as well as the stresses and anxieties of day-to-day living.

Feast Day is May 15

Patron Saint of Epilepsy, Mental Illness, Incest Victims, Runaways

“O God, we humbly beseech you through your servant, Saint Dymphna, who sealed with blood the love she bore you, to grant relief to those who suffer from mental afflictions and nervous disorders.”

Because of her personal knowledge of the terror and misery caused by madness, Saint Dymphna offers great comfort and consolation to those afflicted with mental disorders and also to their families. Her burial site continues to be a place of miraculous healing, and Gheel, in Belgium, the town where it is located, leads the world as a center for the treatment of the mentally ill. Saint Dymphna lived for such a short time, so long ago, there is little to prove that she ever really existed.  Born the daughter of an Irish pagan King and Christian mother, Dymphna fled her home after her mother died to avoid the sexual advances of her grief mad father.

Saint Dymphna was born in Ireland. Her father, Damon, was a pagan king and her mother was a Christian. Dymphna was raised in her mother’s faith and was very devout. When Dymphna was fourteen, her mother died, and her father became so engulfed in grief, that he sank into mental illness. He sent messengers throughout the land to find a woman of noble birth who resembled his wife so he might marry her. None could be found. Dymphna, however, so resembled his dead wife that he decided to marry her, even though she was his daughter. In order to avoid this fate, Dymphna fled from the castle with her confessor, Saint Gerebran. They traveled abroad, first to Antwerp, then finally settling in Gheel. Within a year her father found them living as hermits. He had the priest beheaded and begged Dymphna to return home with him.

When she refused, he drew his sword and chopped off her head. Both bodies were buried immediately. She was fifteen years old at the time of her death. In those days, epileptics and the mentally ill were treated as pariahs and left to roam. Shortly after Saint Dymphna’s death, five such sufferers went to sleep at the site where she was killed and were instantly healed by the blood in the earth. The legend of Saint Dymphna became very popular in the early thirteenth century when the bodily remains of an unknown man and woman were dug up and the name Dymphna was written on a brick found in the coffin of the woman. As the remains were reinterred in a tomb, miraculous healings of those suffering from epilepsy and mental illness were reported in the immediate area.

The bishop of Cambrai commissioned a text of the life of Saint Dymphna which drew on oral reports for its information. The tomb became a pilgrimage site for those suffering from mental afflictions. By the end of the thirteenth century a hospital was built near Dymphna’s tomb for the treatment of nervous and mental illnesses.

Today, Gheel remains a world—renown hospital center, offering the most enlightened methods in treating the mentally ill, and the residents of that city are known for their kindness toward those so afflicted. As many as two thousand patients at a time live within the community with local families and work on everyday tasks until they are well. Because of the madness of her father, Dymphna is known as the patroness of mental and nervous afflictions. It is assumed she was sexually abused; thus she is also the patroness of incest victims and runaways. Saint Dymphna is traditionally pictured with the palms of martyrdom. In some images she is depicted with the sword that beheaded her, and the devil, representing mental illness, is shown in chains at her feet.

Novena

O God, we humbly beseech you through your servant Saint Dymphna, who sealed with her blood the love she bore you, to grant relief to those who suffer from mental afflictions and nervous disorders, especially

Name the afflicted person

Saint Dymphna, helper of the mentally afflicted, pray for us. Saint Dymphna, comforter of the despondent, pray for us. Saint Dymphna, renowned for many miracles, please hear my plea. Amen  

Recite one Glory Be  

Say this novena nine times in a row for nine days
in a row.