St. Rita of Cascia (1381-1457) is known as the patroness of impossible causes, and some say events that should logically be impossible happened in the Catholic church that honors her on Chicago’s Southwest Side decades ago.
The parish has a long history, having become the first community of the Augustinian order in Chicago in 1905, but the St. Rita of Cascia Church that now stands at 6243 S. Fairfield Ave. in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood was built relatively more recently, with the cornerstone laid in 1948.
A dozen years after that, just once according to all known reports, a single spectral and paranormal experience transpired inside the church on one specific All Souls’ Day.
St. Rita of Cascia: A life of challenges, peacemaking and prayer
In the Umbrian village of Roccaporena in the republic of Cascia in modern-day Italy, Antonio and Amata Lotti became the parents of a girl named Margherita, or Rita, in 1381. According to tradition, the day after she was baptized, her cradle was surrounded by a mysterious swarm of white bees, which entered her mouth, but didn’t harm her or even wake her up.
According to her national shrine, Rita was attracted to the way of life of the Augustinian nuns in her community right away. But her parents arranged to have her married at the age of 12, and in deference to their wishes, she was married to the nobleman Paolo di Fernando di Mancini. He is described as violent and abusive, as well as unfaithful to the marriage…