St Rita Prayer for Impossible Causes and Broken Families
To the saint who endured an abusive marriage and still forgave
Morning Prayer editorial team · Updated: November 2026
Saint Rita of Cascia was a wife, mother, widow, and nun who saw God transform the impossible: a violent husband, a bitter family feud, a closed convent door. Pray to her for the situation you have given up on.
Let us pray
Saint Rita, patron of impossible causes, I come to you with something I no longer know how to pray about. I have called it impossible so many times that I have almost stopped hoping. But you knew impossible, and you watched God work anyway.
You lived with a violent husband and prayed until his heart softened. Pray for the marriages I know that are breaking. Pray for the spouses who have stopped speaking, the homes where anger has replaced love. Ask God to do in them what He did in your home.
You lost your husband to murder and your sons to illness, and you forgave the men who killed him. Pray for me where I cannot forgive. Pray for families torn by old wounds and feuds that have lasted for years.
You were refused entrance to the convent three times, and God Himself opened the door. Pray for the doors in my life that will not open: the job, the healing, the reconciliation, the conversion of someone I love.
You bore a wound from the crown of Christ for fifteen years. Pray for all who suffer in silence, and teach me to unite my pain to His.
Saint Rita, nothing was impossible for the God you trusted. Carry my impossible cause to Him and ask Him to show His power once more. Amen.
Blessing
May Saint Rita intercede for your impossible cause, and may God who opened doors for her open them for you.
How to pray this prayer
- Find a quiet moment and breathe slowly.
- Read the prayer aloud or in your heart.
- Add your own intention before the Amen.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Saint Rita the patron of impossible causes?
Her life was full of situations that seemed hopeless: an abusive marriage that was transformed, murderers she forgave, a convent that refused her until God intervened. People bring her their own impossible situations.
What is the symbol of Saint Rita?
The rose. In the winter before her death, she asked for a rose from her family garden and one was found blooming in the snow. Roses are blessed on her feast day, May 22.
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