PRAYER TO ST. RITA (each day) O holy protectress of those who are in utmost need, who shinest as a star of hope in the midst of darkness, glorious and blessed St. Rita, bright mirror of the Catholic Church, in patience and fortitude as the patriarch Job, scourge of devils, health of the sick, deliverer of those in extreme need, admiration of saints, and model of all states; with my whole heart and soul prostrated before and firmly united to the adorable will of my God, through the merits of my only Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and in particular through the merits of His patient wearing of that torturing crown of thorns, which thou, with a tender devotion, didst daily contemplate; through the merits of the most sweet Virgin Mary and thine own excellent graces and virtues, I implore thee to obtain my earnest petition — provided it be for the greater glory of God and my own sanctification (here mention your request), and herein do thou guide and purify my intention, O holy protectress and most dear advocate, so that I may obtain the pardon of all my sins and grace to persevere daily, as thou didst, in walking with courage and generosity and unwavering fidelity through the heavenward path in which the love of my sweet Lord desires to lead me. Amen. St. Rita, advocate of the hopeless, pray for us. St. Rita, advocate of the impossible, pray for us. Three Our Fathers, Hail Marys, Glory bes. INDULGENCED PRAYER O glorious St. Rita, who didst miraculously participate in the sorrowful Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, obtain for me the grace to suffer with resignation the troubles of this life, and protect me in all my needs. Amen. MEMORARE IN HONOUR OF ST. RITA Remember, O holy protectress of those in extreme need, that no one ever turned to thee in affliction, besought thy assistance, or implored thy intercession and was left unaided. With a firm reliance upon thy favour at the Throne of Grace, I, a suppliant, come to thee, blessed Rita, bright saint of the impossible! Hearken thou to my petitions. Amen. V. Thou hast signed Thy servant. R. With the signs of Thy love and Passion. Let us pray. O God, who didst deign to confer on St. Rita, for imitating Thee in love of her enemies, the favour of bearing in her heart and brow the marks of Thy love and Passion, grant, we beseech Thee, that through her intercession and merit, we may, pierced by the thorns of compunction, ever contemplate the sufferings of Thy Passion, who livest and reignest forever and ever. Amen.
Novena to St. Rita of Cascia
Nine days, or nine Thursdays, to the 'saint of the impossible': the prayer Pius X indulgenced in 1906, the Augustinians' prayer to the 'holy protectress of those in utmost need', and the Memorare to St. Rita.
13–21 May before the feast (22 May); on nine consecutive Thursdays; in cases judged impossible; for troubled marriages.
Rita of Cascia — wife of a violent man, widow, mother of two sons who died, then Augustinian nun bearing for fifteen years a wound from Christ's crown of thorns — was canonised on 24 May 1900, and her devotion spread through the Augustinian parishes of Italy and America within a decade. The Augustinians' manual of 1914 gave the novena its shape: nine consecutive days or nine consecutive Thursdays, the Rosary each day, and the prayers here. Its title for her, 'advocate of the impossible', is the one that stuck.
The short prayer 'O glorious St. Rita, who didst miraculously participate in the sorrowful Passion' was indulgenced by Pius X in 1906 and is the Raccolta's text; the rest is from the 1914 manual. The manual's own warning is worth repeating: a novena 'consists of certain prayers or devotions continuing uninterruptedly for nine days… If a day be missed the novena is broken and must be commenced over again.'
The short prayer, three hundred days once a day — Pius X, 11 August 1906 (Raccolta, 1910, no. 392).
