St. Rita of Cascia & Baseball – My New Favorite Saint
theophilus May 22nd, 2008
I think I might have a new favorite saint. St. Rita of Cascia is new to the U.S. liturgical calendar even though she lived in the 15th Century and was canonized in 1900. Why the Church waited so long to canonize her and then get her on our calendar is beyond me because I fell in love with her story as soon as I read it.
She wanted to become a nun but her parents wanted her to marry. She obeyed her parents and was rewarded by being married to a jerk. With him, she had two boys – both of whom tried her patience. After 18 years of marriage, her husband had started to come around when he was killed by a political rival. She grew justifiably concerned that her sons were going to try and exact revenge. She tried to persuade them to forgive and forget but ultimately had to give them over to God, as she prayed that God would stop their plans. Both sons died of natural causes within a year of their father’s murder. Talk about God needing to go to extreme measures.
St. Rita decided to enter a convent but the nuns wouldn’t accept her because of the political turmoil involving her family. Realizing this obstacle, she reconciled the warring families, which in turn led to her being admitted to the convent. There is a story that the nuns really couldn’t refuse her when they found her one morning inside the locked convent with no visible signs of entry. It was said that she was transported into the convent walls by St. John the Baptist, St. Augustine and St. Nicholas of Tolentino, her patron saints. It makes me think that I really need to figure out who my patron saints are and start praying to them.
One night while she was praying, she received a thorn above her forehead from Christ’s crown of thorns. The wound would remain for the rest of her life and would end up smelling so badly that she was separated from the other nuns. St. Rita was a model nun. She died in 1457, her body incorrupt, her wound smelling of roses.
There is much to admire about St. Rita as she led just a great and holy life. Oh, and for some reason, she is the unofficial patron saint of baseball. As she is also a patron saint of lost and impossible causes, I now consider her to be the patron saint of my beloved Cincinnati Reds.
As I read about her rather unusual wound, I wonder what she thought about the thorn in her forehead. It had to hurt, it certainly smelled. The other nuns probably looked at her kinda sideways. So, did she consider it a blessing or a curse?
I ask the question because I have facial birth defects – it’s clear that something is screwed up with my face. I’ve often wondered whether my face is a blessing or a curse. I often asked myself what would I do if Christ would appear to me and tell me that he would heal me – that all I would need to do is ask. Would I want to be healed?
I have trouble answering this question because my face and my birth defects have become an ingrained part of my personailty, an integral part of who I am. My face has taught me humility, patience, and forgivness. You haven’t lived until you’ve had to respond to a little boy telling you that you have a “funny looking” face and you realize the only appropriate response is a laugh and a “yes, I do.”
Did St. Rita want to be cured of the thorn? Afterall, it was a special sign from God - a different twist on the stigmata. Did it become a part of who she was, so to heal her would be to take away something integral to her?
I’m glad to have gotten to learn about this incredible saint. She was a wonderful woman who has a great deal to teach us today. And as the Reds are opening a four-game series with the Padres tonight in San Diego, I think it only appropriate for me to say a little novena on their behalf – that is assuming she isn’t already a Padres fan.
