It is also deserving of notice here that the custom of calling her the Blessed, which had been introduced even during the century after her death, in a short time became public and general. About eight years after her most glorious death the learned Cardinal Girolamo Seripando had already placed Rita on his list of the Saints and Blesseds of the Augustinian Order; Panfilo, Crusenio, Gelsomini, and Ferrario had in their works already confirmed these titles and honours; the Fathers-General of the Order were already accustomed in their official documents and letters patent to style her either by the title of Blessed or that of Saint, and distinguished her convent by the same title. In a word, the general body of the faithful had already beatified her long before the Vicar of Jesus Christ had her name inserted in the Roman Martyrology or had granted an Office in her honour. Now, if the worship given to Rita was so great before it was allowed by the Church to honour her publicly, we may imagine how much it was increased when the decree of the Supreme Head of the Church, who could do no less than add his voice to the general chorus of praise, set his seal and approval on it. Religious veneration to the famous Rita then speedily spread throughout the whole earth, and together with the people, Kings, Cardinals, Prelates, and personages of the greatest distinction, bent their knees in devotion before the humble servant of God, and deemed themselves happy in her patronage. Amongst the countries remarkable for devotion to her, the kingdoms of Spain and Portugal were pre-eminent, both in their European possessions and their vast colonies in the Western world; for throughout them all the name of Rita was glorious, and their monarchs gave the most edifying examples of piety and munificence. And it was in these Catholic dominions that, owing to the very many great miracles she wrought, she began to be known by the title of '_the Saint of the Impossible_,' and in them hard to find a church which has not an altar dedicated to her honour. So much was her veneration extended that the inhabitants of the city of St. Sebastian, in Brazil, made a supplication to Pope Benedict XIII. to obtain the extraordinary faculty of consecrating a church under the invocation of B. Rita, and when the faculty had been granted their pious intention was soon carried into effect. Seventy years before that Monsignor Giuseppe Cruciani of Cascia, chamberlain of Pope Alexander VII., had obtained possession of the Church of St. Blase in Rome, with the intention of rededicating it to B. Rita, and to-day we find it so dedicated, and it has become the church proper to the people of Cascia in Rome. Still earlier, and immediately after her beatification, Monsignor Fausto Poli, himself a native of Cascia, who was then Maggiordomo to Pope Urban VIII., and afterwards became Cardinal and Bishop of Orvieto, acquired possession of the house in