A brief biography

It is believed that Margherita Lotti was born in 1381, in Roccaporena, to Antonio and Amata Ferri. From an early age she wanted to dedicate her life to God but her parents, no longer young, wanted to see their only daughter settled before dying. Rita, meek and obedient, and not wanting to go against her parents' wishes, married Paolo Mancini at a very early age. Notwithstanding Paolo's quarrelsome nature, Rita tried, with tender and passionate love, to change her husband's contentious character.

The loving union of Paolo e Rita saw the birth of twins: Giacomo Antonio and Paola Maria reared in tender love by Rita. This period, perhaps the happiest of Rita's married life, was tragically shattered when her husband was murdered - it happened in the dead of night, in a valley, at the mill of Remolida of Poggiodomo, under the cliffs of Collegiacone. It was speculated that the crime resulted from political adversity, old vendettas. Paolo's last words were an expression of his love for Rita and their children. The message of forgiveness is the highest expression of the wisdom of the Cross and in Rita it ignited boundless mercy towards those who had murdered her husband. She started working immediately towards reconciliation, beginning with her own children, who felt it their duty to avenge their father's death. But Rita's feelings of forgiveness and moderation could not convince them. So Rita prayed to the Lord, offering up the lives of her children, rather than see them stained by a bloody feud. "They died less than a year after the death of their father."
Rita, now all alone, and with her heart torn from so much pain, began to do charitable deeds and, above all, worked at gestures of reconciliation towards her husband's killers - all necessary conditions for admittance to a convent, which would crown the great desire Rita had harboured in her heart since she was a young girl.
Encouraged by prayer and her faith in God, Rita knocked on the door of the Convent of Santa Maria Maddalena in Cascia. Three times she knocked on those doors, and three times the doors remained shut. But the good Lord fulfilled her wish: in 1417 she was received in the convent and remained there in prayer for 40 years, to serve God and her fellowmen. Rita soon became a lover of the Cross and made this love the secret of her saintliness.

One evening, on Holy Friday, after the traditional Cristo Morto procession, the miracle happened: "Rita was gifted with a thorn in her brow", and she carried that thorn for 15 years, like a seal of love. Rita suffered her pain with joy and heroic fortitude, and made it a precious source of fruitful apostolate for her brothers. Apart from one brief occasion, when she went to Rome to receive the Roman Indulgences, the wound on her forehead remained open until the end of her days on this earth.

Having indicated Christ as the culmination of our joy, Rita, serene in the knowledge of having fulfilled her divine mission amongst us, died a blessed death on Saturday, 22 May 1457. Today we beseech her, close to God, to stay vigilant on our behalf.