Description

An avenue flanked by an airy colonnade leads to the Basilica and the Monastery where St. Rita lived and died. Between the columns, one glimpses the old tiles of the roofs against the background of green hills and distant blue mountains. Below is the valley through which flows the Corno river, whose waters bathe Roccaporena, Rita’s native village, before reaching Cascia. Years ago, instead of the avenue there was a narrow lane squeezed in between the walls of the monastery and a long row of old houses – a path too narrow for the many pilgrims.

At the beginning of the avenue, a bronze statue group commemorates Mother Maria Teresa Fasce, the mind and soul behind the project for dedicating a temple to the Saint that is worthy of her glory and, for the pilgrims, a place that could welcome their love. The temple was consecrated in 1947, the same year that Mother Fasce died. The statue group includes two little girls: the poor orphans for whom the Mother had a large orphanage built.

Crossing the threshold of the Monastery, a well and two vines in a spacious courtyard recall the miracle of the dried out stick that Rita, obeying an order from her abbess, watered day after day until, suddenly, a shoot grew out of the dead wood.

Coming to the Sanctuary, a Latin phrase inscribed in the frieze reads: “Hail Rita, full of love, sorrowful bride of Christ, from the thorns of the Savior you were born beautiful as a rose.”

The entrance portal by Eros Pellini commemorates Rita’s life in ten panels. In one of them, Rita, together with her two adolescent sons, contemplates the body of her murdered husband. In another, she receives the stigmata of the thorn on her forehead. Another still portrays the miracle of the roses, which blossomed amid the winter snows, shortly before she died.

Entering the temple, the first apse, frescoed by Silvio Consadori (1956), is dedicated to the life of Christ: from the flight into Egypt to the dispute with the doctors in the temple; from baptism in the Jordan to the resurrection of Lazarus; from Judas’ kiss to the flagellation; and, lastly, Jesus falling under the weight of the Cross, and, standing by torn with pain, Rita, who dedicated her life to participating in the Passion. Above is Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane with Calvary in the background and weeping women. The crucifix is missing, and in its place is a large cross, abandoned by the Resurrected Christ, who rises into a tawny heaven of glory, with the words “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32).

The right apse, painted by Gisberto Ceracchini (1953), is dedicated to Mary, with scenes from her life culminating, on the vault, in the large fresco of the Assumption in which the Blessed Virgin ascends to heaven amid a choir of angels holding white lilies: eight in all, like the number of the Redemption, and white, like the virginity of Mary. The apostles, gathered around the empty tomb, incredulous, look towards the resurrected Virgin, mother of all humanity who will resurrect in Christ at the end of time, while she rises, lightly, to a heaven suffused with the colors of dawn.

On the vault of the rear apse, dedicated to the Holy Sacrament, Luigi Filocamo (1950) painted the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist. The scene is immersed in the clear light of twilight in which distant mountains fade. Among the merry companions, the only one not at the table is Judas, with his purse full of silver and his death plan in his heart. On the right arch, Abraham is about to sacrifice his son; depicted on the left arch is the celebration of the Passover. All around the drum of the apse is a long procession of the saints and beatified of the Augustinian order. Among them is the founder, accompanied by a large eagle, showing a book in which is written: “Dear brothers, first of all love God, then your neighbor.”

In the presbytery, Giacomo Manzù (1981) gives a lavish offering of the symbols of reconciliation, peace and forgiveness: the ideals to which Rita dedicated her life. The dominant motifs are the olive tree and the doves which perch joyfully on the branches amid a fluttering of wings. An olive branch winds around the long Paschal candle and the Crucifix is nailed to three long olive leaves, symbol of peace between heaven and earth ensured by the sacrifice of the Son of Man. The top of the altar rests on the intertwined vine branches and shoots, symbol of the Eucharist and of the mystical body of Christ. Resting on the tabernacle in the shape of an egg, a symbol of resurrection, is a bundle of wheat. The clasp of the tabernacle is a rose, Rita’s emblem, signifying that the way followed by her leads to the living mystery of the Redeemer.

The dome over the central part of the Basilica, fresco by Montanarini (1956), represents the saints of the Order, with the large golden halos of glory. Among them are Rita, with the thorn in her forehead, and Augustine, with the book of his Rule, eyes looking up toward the white dove of the Paraclete spreading its wings in a brilliant golden light, on the clipeus that covers the dome’s lantern.The keystone of the allegories painted in the Basilica is the Holy Spirit, who is Love. The Son is present in the two opposite aisles. The first Person of the Trinity, the Father, is not represented in the temple dedicated to Rita. The Father is to be intuited beyond form and matter, beyond the architectures consecrated by the pontifical rite, in the silence of the mind where there are no longer forms, nor ideas.

Before the nave dedicated to Mary, Rita’s chapel, with its octagonal plan, expresses once again the sign of redemption: the rebirth of the cosmos, the fulfillment in Christ of the seven days of the creation. Ferruccio Ferrazzi (1951) frescoed the vault and drum of the apse. At the top is the powerful Christ Pantocrator, sitting on a throne with halo of flames; behind him is a large cross of white light among dazzling flames. At his feet, Rita leans her head against Christ’s knee in a gesture of faithful abandon. The drum is decorated with allegories of the virtues.

Among these, Fortitude embraces a tawny lion. The silver urn that holds Rita’s body is placed in a small copper temple held by four angels who represent the four cardinal virtues. A Latin inscription runs around the urn: “You preceded her steps with the blessing of your kindness, Lord, and you placed on her head a crown of precious stone. Hallelujah.” From her death until 1745, Rita’s body laid in a painted wooden casket known as the “Solemn Coffin.” From 1745 to 1930 it was kept in a sumptuous Baroque urn donated by the Malaspina noble family of Ascoli. In 1930 it was transferred to the silver and crystal case. On the lid of the “Solemn Coffin” Rita is portrayed on her deathbed, covered by a long cloak and wearing the dark tunic of the Order with the thorn in her forehead. The front panel shows the Resurrecting Christ, with the crown of long, sharp thorns, between Mary Magdalene with long blond hair and a jar of ointment and Rita. Rita smiles: her wound is on her forehead, but the thorn is no longer there, she has it in her hand. Rita has risen with Christ and she gives him her pledge of love: the thorn that had fallen out of his crown and had pierced her. The painted inscription recalls the Rita’s steadiness during her “ferocious passion” in which, after much suffering, she found light on the cross. It recalls her disdain for worldly goods in view of the one heavenly treasure, the Groom to whom she gave everything. The reward for that passion, which was given only to Rita among all women, was the thorn that pierced her forehead for fifteen years.  Besides steadiness, Rita’s other great virtue was her humility, which up to the very end made her feel unworthy of participating in the “more joyous life” of the saints. The date of 1457 with which the writing ends is considered by many authoritative scholars to be the date of Rita’s death. Today the “Solemn Coffin” is preserved in the Monastery, in the cell in which St. Rita lived.

Leaving the Sanctuary, before entering the structures below, the Penitentiary and the Lower Basilica, one comes to the “Fountain of Life” by Armando Marrocco (1986).The artist was inspired by Moses’ miracle – striking a rock to bring forth a spring on the long march to the Promised Land – and by the evangelical symbolism of the water of life. The mass of travertine swells in the middle and becomes smooth and turgid, like the belly of a woman about to give birth. The rock cracks in the shape of a cross. The vertical crack splits the rock in two down to the basin carved out of it, uniting heaven with the earth. And the water of life gushes forth from the cross. Doves arrive in flight: seven in all, like the seven sins that penitence and grace turn into virtues. Seven, like the colors of the rainbow that sanction the Alliance.

In the Penitentiary there is the suggestive travertine sculpture group of the Prodigal Son, also by Marrocco. The merciful father tightly embraces the son who, having squandered all his money and experienced poverty and misery, returns home. “While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was deeply moved. He ran out to meet him, and threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against God and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants: ‘Let us eat and celebrate, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life. He was lost and is found.’” (Luke 15:20-24) The prodigal son, covered in rags, still has his stick and travelling sack over his shoulder. Leaning on his father’s shoulder, his face barely seems human, expressing the consequences of sin on his soul. The father’s face instead lights up with a joyful smile, even though one can still see in it the suffering of his loss. A grapevine surrounds the two figures, like the leafy arches of country festivals, signifying that the sacrament of reconciliation allows the sinner to go back to being a living branch that bears fruit.

Standing near the entrance of the Sala del Ringraziamento (Thanksgiving Room) is the large statue of the Redeemer, a work by Marrocco, from which seagulls take flight, symbolizing the rediscovered freedom of the spirit. On his forehead there is just one wound left by the crown of thorns, in memory the thorn that pierced Rita’s forehead. At the entrance of the room, the stick and travelling sack, the worn out shoes, and the ragged clothes worn by the prodigal son indicate that the trip back home has ended. The sinner has returned to the house of the Father.

In the lower Basilica, the bones of the Blessed Simone Fidati of Cascia, Augustinian (†1348), are kept. In 1330, a pastor from a suburb of Siena went to bring the Eucharist to a sick man. He put the consecrated host in his breviary and started walking, holding it under his arm. When he opened it, he found a bleeding mark on the pages. He went to Simone, who at that time was preaching in Siena, to be absolved. Simone kept the breviary, a page from which he gave to the brothers in Cascia. Armando Marrocco made the urn containing the bones of Blessed Simone out of a large hollow yellow stone.On the left and right of the urn, two tablets of travertine, carved to resemble the pages of a book, bear the reproduction of the bloody print inside which the face of Jesus appeared.

On the wall at the back of the chapel, a reliquary made from a rough block of the same stone as the urn contains the page of the miracle. In another chapel, Mother Maria Teresa Fasce rests. St. Rita’s feast day is May 22nd.

 

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