Cascia and St. Rita

  

 

 

In a chapter entitled, "The Road to Norcia", Edward Hutton introduces the charming Italian boy, Ulisse, who would  explain many things to him as they wandered about the beautiful countryside. 

 I found a possible lodging in Norcia in the house of a couple whose nephew, a young boy, was paying them a visit from his home in Dolcedorme, and he became my daily companion. We explored Norcia and the surrounding country together, wandering in the woods, penetrating into the mountains and visited Cascia. He was, I suppose, in some sort my servant, but no one could have had a better or more charming companion. His name was Ulisse….

 

One day we made a more serious expedition to Castelluccio, a very high village with an inn above the Piano Grande, at the base of the Monti Sibillini, right under towering Monte Vettore. It was cooler up there at over 4,000 feet.

Cascia

Then there was the journey to Cascia, which we managed by taking the electric train from Norcia to Serravalle and proceeding from there by bus.

Cascia is over 2,000 feet above the sea and stands on the slope of a hill over the Corno stream. It is a remarkable little place with a few hundred inhabitants, and entirely given over  to Santa Rita, who is its whole existence. And no wonder, for as Ulisse impressed upon me again and again, Santa Rita is the saint dell’ impossibile. “If you are in despair, if you are at your wits’ end, if everything seems lost e buona notte, and only a miracle—but not an ordinary miracle, an ‘impossible miracle--can save you, go to Santa Rita. Or, if that is impossible, then make your petition to her, however extraordinary, unheard of, impossible of fulfillment it may be, and you will see!”

 

“Yes,” said I, “I think I see. If you have lost the love of your life, if you are in such a position that only the end of the world can save you, if you are absolutely broke and in more than desperate need of money-----”

 

“Ah,” said Ulisse, “momentino, signore. Tutti I santi and even Santa Rita are difficult about money. Si, signore. Although she will do the impossible for you, she seems to have the same feelings about money, signore, as S. Francesco had, who, as the signore will remember, refused to touch it except with a stick.”

 

“Yes,” said I, “I was forgetting Santa Rita was an Augustinian nun and had a high opinion of poverty and certainly thought, and it might almost seem still thinks, it good for one.”

 

“Signore,” said Ulisse, “the only saint who is good for money is Sangiuseppe, who was a family man and understood the difficulties one meets with in the world. And even he-----" …

Here, Hutton broke off to tell the very interesting story of the life of St. Rita, but let us return to Ulisse. 

 

It was as we returned one perfect night from the Cappuccini, and the mountains seemed more wonderful than ever under the full moon, that I remarked on the marvel of this to Ulisse. “O signore,” said he, “but the signore should see our moon at Dolcedorme.”

 

A strange answer surely, connoting I know not what, pointing beyond the Middle Age, beyond all recorded ages. But men have always believed strange things of the moon, the planets and the stars….

 

In spite of the moon it was dark in the forest, and Ulisse had taken my hand. Italians do not care to be out in the countryside after dark.

 

###