Childhood
Cristina Montella was born in Cercola
(Naples) on April 3, 1920. Once when she was just two years old, while at her
aunt’s house where there was a picture of St Gerard Majella, a redemptorist
saint, she saw the picture come to life and ran away scared. Several days later
she took courage and came to see the picture again. This time St. Gerard
extended his arms towards her, embraced her and told her, “Cristina, you will
become a nun.” During her childhood, she continued experiencing mystical
phenomena like frequent interaction with the child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and
her Guardian Angel. Her heavenly friends told her not to say anything about it.
She was also very penitential. She would sleep on the floor with a rock as a
pillow. Her father took her out of school when she was in fifth grade because
of the fascist government, whose ideology her father was against. After this,
she remained home and became active in Parish work teaching Catechism to girls.
Padre Pio and the Stigmata
At the age of fourteen, she meets Padre
Pio for the first time the night between the 25th and the 26th
of August, 1934. Padre Pio appeared to
her while she was praying. She had never seen him before, so he introduced
himself saying, “Cristina, I am Padre Pio,” and started calling her “bambina”
(little girl) not because of her age but rather because of her innocence. This
is what Father Franco D’Anastasio, a passionist priest, who has dedicated
thirty years to gathering information about Sister Rita writes: “On September
14, 1935 (almost a year after the first apparition of Padre Pio) around 2:00 am,
the fifteen year old was praying as usual in her bed. Suddenly, Heaven opened
up to her. She saw in the forefront, Jesus alive on the Cross, with rays coming
out of his wounds. Near him, were the Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and Padre Pio.”
Sr. Rita herself remembering this in 1976 says that it was then that she
received the stigmata. She recalls that Jesus asked her if she wanted to feel
the pain of His wounds and she said yes. At that moment the rays of light from
the wounds of Jesus penetrated her hands, feet and side and the wounds started
to bleed. The following day, she went to the Shrine of the Madonna dell’Arco to
seek advice from a priest. She found a young recently ordained passionist
priest named Padre Paolo Guida whom she told what had happened. He told her to
go pray in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary and ask her for the grace
that Jesus may take away the stigmata. Sister Rita did as she was told. To the
astonishment of Padre Paolo and Cristina herself, her prayer was immediately
answered and the stigmata disappeared, however, the pain and the wound in her
side remained until the end of her life. In one of her mystical encounters with
Padre Pio, he told her, “Lucky you, little girl, who has them hidden,” and he
kissed her hands and she kissed his.
Since
that September 14, 1935, she kept the ‘Holy Hour’, which she called the Holy
Hour for priests. During this time, she relived the Passion of the Lord in her
body for three hours every night, but she did not suffer alone. Padre Pio
joined her mystically every night.
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| Sister Rita of the Holy Spirit (Cristina Montella) |
She frees her father from Purgatory
At this time she greatly desired to enter
the cloister, but her father was against it. Then on January 10, 1940, her
father, Luigi Montella, suffered a stroke and died calling on Our Lady of Mount
Carmel. Cristina later said that: “The Lord called my father to Himself because
he opposed my vocation to enter the cloister.” She also revealed, “In the days
following his death, I prayed intensely for his soul. On the seventh day Jesus
granted me the grace of freeing him from Purgatory. He embraced me and kissed
me and then went with Jesus to Heaven.”
Cristina enters the convent
On August 10, 1940 she entered cloister of
the Augustinian Nuns in Santa Croce sull’ Arno’s (Pisa, Italy) where she remained
for fifty one years until her death on November 26, 1992. She performed different jobs during this time
including cook, nurse, sacristan, seamstress, and accountant. At the beginning,
Cristina would pray the “Holy Hour” every night around eleven o’clock in the
chapel behind the sacristy in order to be near the Blessed Sacrament. Here
Padre Pio would meet her and they would pray together with two couples of angels
who would hold their arms up. After two or three months of doing this, she decided
to hold the “Holy Hour” in her room because it was more private.
Cristina had many extraordinary gifts such
as visibly seeing her guardian angel, the gift of prophecy, reading of hearts,
and bilocation. She also had the rare gift of accompanying souls into paradise,
the souls of those on whose behalf she had suffered the pains of purgatory.
During the last years of her life, she nourished herself exclusively on the
Eucharist, which often she received directly from the side wound of Jesus.
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| Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty |
Visits to Cardinal Mindszenty in Jail by Bilocation
She often went in bilocation together with
Padre Pio to Budapest to comfort Cardinal Mindszenty in jail and to visit other
victims of the Soviet government. Both Sister Cherubina Fascia and Father
Franco D’Anastasio, a passionist priest who has collected much of the
information about the life of Sister Rita in an unpublished manuscript [1],
can attest to this fact. The following is from a conversation Fr. Franco had
with Sisiter Rita:
"-Is it true that you were present when they condemned the Cardinal? What did you say?
I was there and I said that by doing that they were going to go to hell. One of them told me that he did not care about hell.
-Were you dressed as a nun?
No, I was dressed as a lady from the city.
-Did Padre Pio used to go with you to visit the Cardinal?
Yes, often.
-Where did you get the Sacred Vessels for the celebration of the Mass?
From the sacristy of my monastery.
-What language was spoken?
Different languages. That was not a problem.
-Did you use to take other things to the Cardinal?
Sometimes, I would take him a coffee.
-What if I asked the Cardinal personally to confirm these instances of bilocation?
He would not say anything because he has to keep it a secret."
But there is even more to this: Sister
Cherubina Fascia, who was a spiritual daughter of Padre Pio, a devoted friend to
Sister Rita and a disciple of Father Teofilo Dal Pozzo who was latter on the
spiritual director of Sisiter Rita, was told the following by the Abbess of the
convent of Sister Rita, Abbess Matilda: “One day Sister Rita came to my room
and told me that Padre Pio had asked her to accompany him to visit Cardinal
Mindszenty in jail to take him what he needs to celebrate Mass. I answered that
perhaps she wanted my permission!? I also asked her when she had to go and she
quickly answered: Tomorrow night. I in turn said to her: Take everything you
need and bring it to my room beforehand. When the time comes for you to leave,
you will come to my room for the things and then you can go. She did as she was
told. In my room, which I had locked, I waited while praying; my heart was
beating very fast. At a certain point I heard a knock and I said: Come in.
Despite the fact that the door was locked, she entered, took everything she
needed from the table and started to leave. While she was leaving, I tried to
follow her, since the door to my room was now open. At a certain moment she
disappeared in front of my very eyes. Then I went quickly to her room to check
if her body was there, and she was lying in bed. Then I returned to my room to
find the door locked. I had to use my key to enter and I locked it once more. I
continued to pray waiting for Sister Rita to return. After a while she came
back in exactly the same way; she knocked, entered through the locked door,
returned everything to the table and said goodnight.”
Fr. Teofilo, her spiritual director, in
order verify that she was really visiting Cardinal Mindszenty in jail asked her
to ask the Cardinal to give her a post card or prayer card to be sent to the
Pope. A short time later, when he saw Sister Rita again, she handed him a card
with the picture of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus with a message written in
Latin for Pope Pius XII thanking him and asking for his blessing signed by
Cardinal Mindszenty and dated May 26, 1949.
At the Monastery of Santa Croce sull’Arno
From the beginning of her novitiate at
Santa Croce sull’Arno, Sister Rita had problems. She was very good in the
kitchen, in the laundry room, as a nurse and as a tailor. Because of her
superior intelligence the Abbess wanted to make her a choir nun, a higher rank
than the lay sisters. Some of the nuns were jealous and opposed this decision,
so the Abbess decided to transfer Sister Rita to the monastery of Radicondoli
in Siena. After a short stay there, Sister Rita returned to Santa Croce because
she felt this was the monastery where Jesus wanted her to be. She was readmitted
and started her second novitiate here again. Soon afterwards, however, she
became very ill at the age of 21; she had bone tuberculosis. This impeded her
from doing hard labor and be near the other novices.
On October 1941, a priest named Giuntini
came to the monastery and told Sister Rita that if she wanted to take the habit
she would have to ask Jesus to heal her. She obeyed and was healed immediately.
She was able to make her temporary vows at 9:00am on April 27, 1942 when she
was vested with the Augustinian habit and received the religious name “Rita.”.
Later on that same day, she experienced the mystical espousal. The following is
another interview that Fr. D’Anastasio conducted in the sixties with Sister
Rita about this event:
"-When
did the mystical espousal with Jesus take place?
It began at 2:00 on April 27 which was the day of my investiture.
-Before that occasion had you done the ‘Holy Hour" with Padre Pio?
Yes, he even came that night.
-Who was present from Heaven?
The same ones I have told you before.
-Are they the Virgin Mary and St, Joseph, Padre Pio, St. Augustine, St.
Cristina, St. Clare, Augustinian, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Gabriel of
Sorrows, and St. Gemma Galgani?
Yes. Yes.
-Did you get a wedding ring?
Yes, Jesus put it on me and I on him.
-Did they (the saints) congratulate you?
They gave me a simple hug and extended their wishes for holiness.
-It seems to me that this is about being a ‘crucified’ spouse.
Yes, of course. Otherwise, it would not make sense."
While the espousal was taking place Jesus
showed Sister her future spiritual director, Fr. Teofilo dal Pozzo, capuchin.
He became her spiritual director five years later. Sister Rita made her final
profession on May 23. 1946.
In Mission with Padre Pio during World War II
During World War II Sister Rita often
visited soldiers in danger together with Padre Pio. Their visits were “in
flight” (by bilocation). One of those assisted was Alfonso Montella, Sister
Rita’s brother who was a prisoner in Greece. She told Fr. D’Anastasio: “Alfonso
was taken prisoner by the Greeks. During an allied bombing that took place in
March 1943, he was hit in the head. We (Padre Pio and her) saw pieces of his
brain scattered all over.” When Padre D’Anastasio asked her if she had
accompanied her brother to Heaven as she did with her father, she answered,
“Yes, the Lord received him in Paradise the same day he died.” She said that she
went together with Padre Pio many times to help soldiers in danger and to take
humanitarian aid. One time, she says, “We went to a concentration camp in
Germany to free and Italian soldier. The guards thought we were spies and shot
at us, but the shots did not do anything to us.”
Persecution
Inside the monastery Sister Rita suffered
from the persecution of some of sisters that disliked her. They humiliated her
and called her “strange” and “hypocrite.” She tried to keep her supernatural
life hidden. The former Abbess wrote to the convent of Radicondoli about the
situation with Sister Rita telling them that “Here, between you and I, we have
a saint among us. And those who dislike her do because she is a reproach to
them.” About two of the sisters that mistreated her, Sister Rita said, “Sister
Giuseppa and Sister Cristina were good. Unfortunately, without realizing it
they were used as instruments of the adversary,” referring to satan. Everything
that happened remained within the walls of the monastery, however Jesus told
her: “Everyone wants to be seen in order to be praised. My ‘little ball,’
instead, is always hidden. This is why I want everyone to come to know you. The
one I will entrust you to (Fr. Teofilo Dal Pozzo) will be the first one to make
you known.” Fr. Teofilo who would be her spiritual director from 1947-1962 believed
that Sister Rita’s gifts of counsel, prophecy and prayer could help many people
and wanted her to meet other religious and lay people; however, in the sixties
after he died, her supernatural gifts were kept hidden.
Under Investigation
Jesus told Sister Rita, “Too late will
they realize the treasure they have had among them, they will realize only when
there is no more time left.” Fr. Teofilo was very impressed with Sister Rita’s
spiritual experiences, especially her connection with Padre Pio with whom she
relived the Passion of Christ and went in bilocation on missions all over the
globe. Thus, he ordered her to write everything down in a dairy. So in the
fifteen years as her spiritual director, he read one hundred and five
autobiographical notebooks written by Sister Rita. These notebooks were also
read by the Abbess Matilde Gazzarrini and a few other trustworthy nuns in the
convent. These notebooks are still kept at the Monastery of Santa Croce but are
not accessible. Eye witness Sister Maria Grazia Giunti wrote, “The guardian
angel would dictate to her. Sitting down, she would stare at him not looking at
all at notebook where she was writing very quickly with her pen. When she
finished writing, she would not even reread it.”
Fr. Teofilo was convinced of the
authenticity of her gifts and wanted to have her examined by others. Padre Pio
had already given him a positive opinion of Sister Rita when he spoke to him.
He also managed to have Fr. Giovanni da Baggio examine her. Fr. Giovanni put
her to a test because he wanted to know if it was true that she met Padre Pio
daily in her cell #4. In 1949 Fr.
Giovanni simply asked Sister Rita to give Padre Pio a book that was signed by
him. A few months later, Fr. Giovanni went to San Giovanni Rotondo to visit
Padre Pio. He had forgotten about the book, but when he was about to leave,
Padre Pio with his characteristic sense of humor told him, “Reverend Father,
this book is yours, but you should not make jokes like these.”
In the fall of 1949 they started medical
and psychiatric evaluations of Sister Rita that would last seven months. The
medical exams could not explain the reasons for her conditions such as migraines,
vomiting, and insomnia. The psychiatric evaluation also found her to be normal.
There is no medical report on the stigmata because except for the wound on her
side, they were hidden, and the wound on the side disappeared when she was
being examined.
Sister Rita had the mystical gift of
inedia or “mystical anorexia” in which she was nourished exclusively on the
Eucharist. She could not hold food in her stomach. In the seventies, she was
ordered to take some food every day, and she obeyed which represented a great
suffering because it would make her sick and she had to throw up. Her guardian
angel would wipe her tears and tell her, “Poor daughter. What a penance!” And
the Blessed Virgin Mary told her, “This happens to you because your body does
not need food any longer.” She did not sleep either and yet was able to
continue working in the kitchen and the infirmary. She also suffered from hyperthermia, another
mystical illness in which body temperature reaches a very high fever. She had
fevers of up to 52 degrees C.
Sister Eleonora Pieroni, who was appointed
by the Abbess of Santa Croce as some sort of secretary in the “Montella Case’’
wrote many letters to the Abbess of Radicondoli describing what was happening
to Sister Rita. In a letter sent on July 21, 1950, Sister Eleonora writes, “Have
I ever told you Mother Abbess, about Padre Pio? That when it was his feast day
(day of his investiture), he ate an ice cream prepared by our Mother (Abbess
Gazzarrini) in that cell (Sister Rita’s)? Imagine what condescension! “An ice
cream- he said- I eat gladly because you (Sister Rita) and I burn inside. We
were both born close to the Vesuvius.”
The experiments they performed on her only
worsened her poor health. In 1949 she was sent for a few days to a clinic in
Florence to investigate her “mystical illness.” In another of the letters Sister
Eleonora writes: “The other night Padre Pio and the angel came to make her bed,
giving a good lesson to our nurses who had forgotten to do this. This morning
the priest has brought her Holy Communion after four days of fasting, but
actually she had received Holy Communion every morning from her angel or from
Jesus Himself. Two trips to Florence for checkups. Think, Mother, what
suffering. They had to inject liquid into both of her eyes which made her
suffer terribly and not be able to see for a day. This happened because our
daughter does not sleep at all and her eyes are exposed many hours to
supernatural light, very different from natural light.” This test was done by
the doctors who justified it by saying that her pupils were too dilated.
Anecdotes of supernatural interventions
There are
accounts that speak of the ‘flights’ with the souls in purgatory and those in
heaven. Once she was seen in Naples. The Abbess asked her, “How come?” and she
replied “I was taking bread to a child who had not eaten for two days because
he was screaming. Oh, how he was screaming! Jesus took me there.”
She had
the gift of prophecy and foreseeing some future events. She predicted the
earthquake that took place in Ancona on June 13, 1972. Sister Paola Caciari of
the Institute of Daughters of the Immaculate Conception had a sister, Giovanna,
living in Ancona. Sister Rita told Giovanna to move from Ancona to Bologna specifying
that she and her family should be out of Ancona no later than June 13 before
the evening. That night there was a great earthquake which damaged the building
where Giovanna lived.
Sister
Rita also knew that her spiritual director Fr. Teofilo was going to fall into a
12 meter deep ditch as Satan’s revenge for the new vocation that Fr. Teofilo
and Sister Rita had obtained for the monastery. The priest was walking down the
street after visiting a convent. Sister Rita appeared in bilocation at the
moment the priest fell into the ditch injuring his head and his back. He did
not die because Sister Rita rescued him. His glasses and the eggs he was
carrying did not even get broken. Injured, he was accompanied home by Sister
Rita who was invisible. He felt someone was holding him and he also could smell
the mystical perfume she emanated. The Mother Superior later asked Sister Rita
if it was true that she had helped him and she replied, “See for yourself, my
habit is all full of mud.” She also asked God to let her take some of the
priest’s suffering after the fall. She obtained her request and suffered for a
while until the suffering suddenly disappeared.
Like
Padre Pio, her presence was often detected by the smell of violets. Sometimes
Fr. Teofilo would ask her to open her hands in front of visitors so that the
perfume of violets could get stronger and Sister Rita greatly ashamed obeyed.
Fr.
D’Anastasio mentions in his book Sister Rita’s bilocation to Rome on May 13,
1981 in order to help Pope John Paul II the day he was shot. According to a
report, Ali Agca declared that at the moment of the shot a nun had diverted its
course. The Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera on May 8, 1991 published a
follow up article stating that the bullet’s path had been diverted; otherwise,
the shot should have been lethal. Sister Rita revealed to Fr. D’Anastasio that
she had been there together with the Virgin Mary.
Years
before this, Sister Rita assisted Padre Pio in bilocation during his last agony
on September 23, 1968. She said that at the moment of his passing, the Virgin
Mary, St. Francis and St. Clare were there also. She suffered watching the
doctors try to resuscitate him and said, “They should have let him die in
peace.”
It was
known that Padre Pio continued visiting Sister Rita after his death. During the
seventies, Fr. D’Anastasio met Fr. Pancrazio Poli, the ex-provincial of the
Capuchins of Tuscany. He wanted Sister Rita to ask Padre Pio how come the
stigmata had disappeared when he died. This is Sister Rita’s written response
dated October 9, 1976:
“Dear Fr. Pancrazio,
I have asked grandpa Pio why he did not have the
stigmata when he died. He responded, “Who wants to know?” I answered, “Fr.
Pancrazio.” He smiled and added, “Tell the mystic (this is what both Padre Pio
and Sister Rita called this priest) that I myself asked Jesus for that grace.”
On July
21, 1992, Sister Rita bilocated in order to help her seventeen year old nephew
Massimiliano Aurino, who was riding a moped and went through a red light
crashing into a car. The moped was completely totaled but Massimiliano ended up
with just a slight swelling on the face. He saw when his aunt took him in her
arms and placed him gently on the ground.
Luisa
Falchi sent a letter to Sister Rita to give to Jesus because she was convinced
of the holiness of this nun. In the letter, she asked Jesus if Santa Croce
sull’Arno would one day become a spiritual center like Assisi and San Giovanni
Rotondo. She got her reply on July 8, 1974. Sister Rita told her behind the
grill, “The letter was read to Jesus, who was pleased and smiled. He affirmed that
Santa Croce sull’Arno will become a second Assisi and a second San Giovanni
Rotondo.”
Padre Pio introduces
Sister Rita to his spiritual daughter, Renata Adorni, during bilocation.
Renata
Adorni has a beautiful testimonial of how she came to meet Sister Rita because
of Padre Pio. Renata a spiritual daughter and close friend of Padre Pio, used
to take many pilgrims to visit him and helped financially with the construction
of Padre Pio’s hospital, “Casa sollievo della sofferenza.” Renata tells the
story:
“It was
1954 when I had to go to Bologna to see Dr. Malfatti to receive treatments for
facial myalgia. The treatment lasted a few months. The doctor in charge,
Giovanni Malfatti was an admirer of Padre Pio. Talking to him, I found out that
like me, he was a spiritual child of Padre Pio.
I
confided to him that I often went to Padre Pio to ask his advice about the
health of patients in the hospital of Parma. In this context, the doctor
suggested a shortcut for me to contact Padre Pio.
In order
to fulfill his professional duties and avoid unnecessary traveling to San
Giovanni Rotondo, he frequently went to a town in Pisa where he visited a
charismatic Augustinian nun who was in contact with Padre Pio.
This
nun’s name was Sister Rita Montella, and according to him, every night Padre
Pio used to visit her in bilocation. They would talk and pray, reciting the
Holy Rosary.
The
doctor, therefore, encouraged me to present to this nun all the requests I had
for the patients so that I could get the response from Padre Pio during the
following morning. He even offered to take me by car with his wife to meet this
nun.
However,
since I was so attached to Padre Pio, I did not want to have recourse to this
nun. After two months of Dr. Malfatti’s constant insistence that I meet this
nun, I had an incredible an unexpected experience.
One night
in my bedroom I was half asleep when I felt a knock on the door. Assuming is
was a family member I invited them to enter. Then I saw that the door was
already open and that a Capuchin friar, which I recognized as Padre Pio was
there together with an unknown nun.
They
approached my bed. Padre Pio gave me a great smile while the nun caressed my
face. Padre Pio spoke to me first saying: “Renata, I am here to make you meet
Sister Rita in person.” I immediately replied, “Oh, Padre Pio, thank you!”
Then
Sister Rita looking at me tells me, “Do you want to pray the Rosary with our
“grandpa” (Padre Pio)?” I noticed that while she was saying this, she had a
beautiful white rosary in her hands.
I,
however, responded that I was too sleepy to pray. At that moment the nun looked
at Padre Pio and said, “Padre, Renata does not want to say the Rosary.” Padre
Pio very sweetly explained to her, “In fact, Sister Rita, good is not only done
by staying for a long time on your knees. You should know that Renata has
started a beautiful prayer group. With members from this group and other pious
women, she goes daily to a hospital in Parma. At noon they help the nurses feed
the patients that have returned from the Russian front who are invalid or
mutilated because of frostbite and unable to feed themselves. I believe that
this work is also a valid prayer.” Sister Rita replied in turn, “Padre, if it
is OK with you, it is also fine with me.” To conclude, Padre Pio said, “Then,
Sister Rita, should we leave? Let’s say goodbye to Renata.”
Padre Pio
came close to me, gave me a few slaps on the cheek and a triple blessing. I
kissed his hand. Sister Rita caressed my face as she had done when they came
in. They both said “Good rest!” and left closing the door. When they
disappeared, I had a vision of a great building that I had never seen before. I
looked at the clock and it was around 4:00am.
I should
clarify that regarding the nun that came with Padre Pio, I was under the
impression that it was St. Rita of Cascia. In order to confirm this, early that
morning I went a few Churches in the city to see a few paintings of this saint.
But I did not get the confirmation I wanted. I couldn’t find any paintings of
St. Rita in the Churches of Parma.
A few
days later I went back to see Dr. Malfatti for treatment and I told him about
my experience and St. Rita of Cascia. He immediately assured me saying, “It was
not St. Rita of Cascia the one who came with Padre Pio. The one Padre Pio
brought to you was Sister Rita, the Augustinian nun from Santa Croce sull’Arno,
the one whom you had not wanted to meet.” I recall now that I did not want to
meet her out of respect to my dear Padre Pio. On that occasion, Dr. Malfatti
gave me a presentation letter to take to the Abbess in case I ever wanted to
visit that nun.
A few
months later I took the train to go visit the nun at Santa Croce sull’Arno. My first surprise upon entering the monastery
was the shape of the building which was exactly what I had seen in my vision. I
handed the letter of presentation to the Abbess who welcomed me warmly. Then, I
had a private meeting with Sister Rita which was amazing.
Before we
started to talk through the grill, it was she who called me by name and told
me, “Renata, I know you! I remember that night that I came with Padre Pio…When
you go to San Giovanni Rotondo give him my regards.” That was my confirmation.
Padre Pio
had also something to say about this. About three weeks later, I went to see
Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo because of some urgent business. I took
advantage of the occasion to ask him about that dream in which I had seen him
with whom I thought had been St. Rita. He answered me very kindly, “Don’t keep
saying that you have seen me in a dream. I am not a magician or a fortune
teller or something of that sort. You should know that when I go in bilocation,
the Lord allows me to take another person with me that might be necessary even
for prayer. That is why; it is just by the goodness of the Eternal Father that
I go with Sister Rita to those in need of mercy and assistance.”
The next
time a saw Padre Pio, just after my confession, I tried to extend the greetings
Sister Rita had sent to him. However, in a moment of amnesia (which I had never
had before) I could not even remember the simple name “Rita.” I had forgotten
her name and her place of residence. Noticing my embarrassment, Padre Pio said,
“Sister Rita Montella, Santa Croce sull’Arno, in the province of Pisa.”
Her last years of
life and her death
In 1980 Sister was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. Two years later
she fell down the stairs and broke her left arm. From then on her health
deteriorated. She had heart trouble, her legs were very weak and she had
various pains. She spent most of the 1980’s enduring physical sufferings. She
told her nephew, Arcangelo Aurino, that she would not make it to her 50th
jubilee of her profession (April 28, 1993). In September 1992 her health took a
turn for the worse until the day of her passing, November 26. At 1:00pm the
Abbess found her prostrated and suffering and made her have some coffee to
which she had a terrible reaction. She vomited so violently that she fell to
the floor. When the Abbess returned, she found Sister Rita kneeling while
holding on to her bed and with her gaze fixed on a painting of St. Michael. She
passed away at 1:30pm on November 26, 1992.
She was originally buried in a cemetery in Florence, but on the tenth
anniversary of her death, her remains were transferred to her monastery and
placed behind the altar of the Church.
Her motto was: “For Jesus, all we do is too little”
