Born Margherita Lotti, Rita was married at a young age to a violent, unfaithful husband, whom she endured for eighteen years and eventually forgave after his murder in a family feud. Widowed and having lost both her sons, she sought entry into the Augustinian convent at Cascia, where she lived for forty years in prayer and penance. At around sixty, she received a wound on her forehead resembling Christ's crown of thorns, which remained until her death. Canonized in 1900, she is venerated worldwide, alongside Saint Jude, as a patroness of impossible and desperate causes.