Rita of Cascia

Saint Rita of Cascia is the patroness of impossible and desperate causes — the “Saint of the Impossible” — because every cause in her own life seemed lost and was answered by grace: she was forced into a marriage to a violent man, endured him eighteen years until he was murdered, lost both her sons, and was at first refused entry to the convent she longed for, yet she won through and was admitted by what tradition holds was the miraculous intervention of her three patrons. This is why abused wives and those in heartbreaking marriages turn to her: she lived their suffering and forgave. Late in life she received a thorn-wound on her forehead from Christ’s crown, sharing His Passion, and so the sick and the wounded also seek her help.