Rita was born in 1381 in the town of Roccaporena in Umbria. She lived with a brutal husband and had two sons. After the violent murder of her husband, she urged forgiveness in contrast to the customary vendetta of her day. Becoming an Augustinian nun, she spent some forty years in prayer, contemplation, and service to the sick and poor. Toward the end of her life, she received a wound from a thorn from the crown of thorns. She died in 1457. She is the patron saint of desperate situations.