Rita of Cascia

You don't quit when a cause looks lost, your faithfulness outlasts every reason to walk away. That is Rita's whole story. Forced into a marriage she never chose, she transforms a violent husband through years of patient love. Then he is murdered, and her sons set out for blood revenge, Rita prays and fights until the vengeance is averted and the spiral of violence breaks. Late in life she seeks the convent; obstacle after obstacle stands in her way, and she overcomes every one. According to tradition, she bears in her final years a thorn wound on her forehead, marked by her love for the Crucified. The Church invokes her as the patroness of hopeless causes. So: what have you written off too soon?