Rita of Cascia is the Catholic saint traditionally regarded as the patron saint of impossible causes and associated with a rose and a thorn.
Rita was born around 1381 in Roccaporena, near Cascia in Italy. Although she wished to enter religious life, she married and endured a difficult family situation. After her husband and sons died, she entered the Augustinian monastery of Saint Mary Magdalene at Cascia.
Tradition says that Rita received a wound on her forehead resembling a thorn from Christ's crown. Another popular story says that, near the end of her life, she requested a rose from her childhood home during winter; a rose was reportedly found there.
These stories explain her common symbols, but they are devotional traditions rather than independently verified contemporary reports. Rita was beatified in 1626 and canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1900.