Saint Rita and the Miracle of the Rose and the Figs

From the page of the hermit Father Youhanna Khawand

One day, during Saint Rita’s illness, one of her relatives came to visit her. When the visitor asked whether she could do anything for her, the saint answered:

“Please, as soon as you get home, go to the garden of our old house and bring me a rose you will find there.”

It was winter, and ice covered the trees, so everyone thought the sick woman was delirious from her illness.

But when her relative returned to Roccaporena, she insisted on keeping her promise. She went to the house and did indeed find a rosebush, blackened by frost and age, yet bearing a beautiful rose of brilliant colour. She picked it and hurried back to the monastery with this miraculous rose. The saint took it from her without surprise,

unlike her sister nuns, who were astonished and began singing hymns of thanksgiving to God. Today a bronze statue stands where the miraculous rose grew, in memory of the miracle.
As the visitor was getting ready to leave, Saint Rita asked her to go back to the garden and this time bring her two figs she would find there. The visitor went back to the same place and was able to pick two figs from a bare fig tree.

That is why every year on May 22 the Augustinian monasteries commemorate the miracle of the rose by blessing roses and distributing them to the faithful. On many occasions these blessed roses have been placed on the sick, and they have been healed.

This custom has spread to churches all over the world.

Saint Rita, patroness of impossible causes, pray for us. Amen.
From the page of the hermit Father Youhanna Khawand