Hello everybody:

On 22 May, the Feast of St. Rita of Cassia, Widow, shall be commemorated at the Sunday Mass. However, if you happen to attend a traditional Augustinian Church, the Mass of the Saint shall be said with the commemoration of the Sunday, since it is kept as a Double of the II Class.

Since I do not have much time to write something nice on St. Rita, I figured it would be best if I just scan the Latin-English text of the Day Hours of her Proper Office, which I found in an Augustinian Supplement for an edition of the Day Hours of the Roman Breviary published by Desclée & Co. at Tournai, Belgium, in 1956.

Note how beautifully the texts of the Canticle of Canticles are used in this Office: just beautiful. I have never seen such a thing to such an extent in an Office of a Saint who is not a Virgin.

Anyways, please help me pray to St. Rita to obtain for us the seemingly "impossible" grace of having Church and state restored to their proper tranquility of order. Please don't forget to pray for your friend, Hobble--whatever.

Fun fact:  The name Rita was unknown when her parents gave it to her.  It was a novelty just like "Gemma" but has now become a common name.

Another fun fact:  Rita was given a wound in her forehead by God that had the unusual distinction of reeking horribly rather than emitting a perfume.

More:  At her birth, white bees were seen to swarm around her face, to float in and out of her mouth, without stinging her.   Could the bees perhaps have symbolized the order and discipline and gentleness of the nuns in the cloister?  
I've never seen anyone even speculate about what this meant, but my curiosity is such that I want to know.  What was God trying to signify about Rita through this miracle?

Fun fact:  The name Rita was unknown when her parents gave it to her.  It was a novelty just like "Gemma" but has now become a common name.

I could not find any sources on this. The best example of the novelty of a Saint's name I can call to mind is that of St. Rose of Lima, Virgin, Tertiary of the Order of St. Dominic. This peculiar feature is mentioned in her Proper Office found in the Dominican Breviary.

Another fun fact:  Rita was given a wound in her forehead by God that had the unusual distinction of reeking horribly rather than emitting a perfume.

This is true. In the sixth lesson in the Second Nocturn of her Proper Office, it relates that the wound inflicted upon her forehead, "præter acerbissimum doloris sensum, fœda sanies exhalabat" (which loosely translated is "other than a most bitterly painful sensation, the mixture of pus and blood serum breathed out loathsome stenches"). The lesson continues, "Unde ne sororibus nauseum moveret, solitaria cuм Deo versabatur," (loosely translated: "Whence, lest the sisters should be moved unto nausea, she walked alone with God").

The foul odor of the miraculous stigma was yet another heavy cross for this heroic Saint to bear, and it brought her into a most salutary solitude that was conducive to the attainment of the high mystical levels of prayer to which she was ever progressing.

EDIT: The Office mentioned the sweetness of odor mentioned throughout the Sacred Canticles, and alluding to the "good odour of Christ" (II Cor. ch. ii., 15) that is proper to those who cultivate the interior life. It is only the omnipotence of God and the liberality and prodigality of His grace that can transfigure something foul-smelling as the miraculous stigma of St. Rita upon earth into the sacred sweetness that now delights the Angels and Saints in Heaven and her devoted clients upon earth.

More: At her birth, white bees were seen to swarm around her face, to float in and out of her mouth, without stinging her. Could the bees perhaps have symbolized the order and discipline and gentleness of the nuns in the cloister?  I've never seen anyone even speculate about what this meant, but my curiosity is such that I want to know.  What was God trying to signify about Rita through this miracle?

The Hymn at Vespers mentioned this prodigy and mentions its significance. Since it is attached in the original post, I need not cite it. The sweetness and meekness that the bees symbolized were the heroic virtues that St. Rita exercised in her long-suffering and conjugal loyalty to her husband and in her filial submission to her Superiors in holy Religion. It is also an allusion to the well known encomium of the bee in Holy Writ: "The bee is small among flying things, and her fruit hath the beginning of sweetness" (Ecclus. ch. xi., 3). In her Office, St. Cecilia is praised as "busy as a bee," perhaps alluding to the industry and zeal wherewith she procured the conversion of her husband St. Valerian and his brother.

The bee is an interesting insect, as it is the only such creature that Holy Mother Church bestows such lavish praise as found in the Paschal Exsultet

Sancta Rita, ora pro nobis!