St.
Rita's Marital Home
It is at the entrance to the village; the house was carelessly
transformed into a Church by Cardinal Fausto Poli of Cascia who had the building
demolished and the façade and back wall rebuilt, spending his own 500 scute.
Information regarding the reconstruction of the house was obtained from a report
left by the Notary of Cascia, Francesco Venanzi who, in October 1626 was sent
to Roccaporena by the Prelate to make an inspection of the little building.
The house was in "Contrada Piazza" (the District of Piazza) and consisted of
a ground floor for kitchen use and an upstairs floor that was reached by means
of an external stone stairway. Here, under the roof, there was a bedroom (mansione
seu stantia) and a small room to the left of the entrance, with a window facing
to the east. The roof, which overlooked the public street, had an opening from
which one could see the sky; through that hole, about the size of a palm, according
to the local legend, "the Angel came to visit the Blessed Rita and that "whether
it rains or snows, neither rain nor snow enters that hole". In 1910, Cardinal
Augusto Sili built the rooms with water-reeds at the expense of 300 lira. In
1941 the Church was renovated by the architect Oreste della Piana who, recovered
the sidewalls that existed at the time of S. Rita. Micheletti of Turin painted
the frescos decorating the inside. Above the only altar, there is an oil painting
attributed to Luca Giordano, portraying St. Rita kneeling down in prayer in
front of the Crucifix; Poli commissioned it. Behind the Saint can be seen a
woman picking a rose and a man picking two figs; the landscape is bare; the
coat-of arms of Poli is visible. Dr. Federici of the Vatican art-gallery restored
the painting.