Cascia was the home of Santa Rita, who was born in the nearby frazione of Roccaporena in 1381 and died there in 1457. The modern territory of Cascia was the home of the Roman settlement of Carsulae, destroyed in the 1st century BC by an earthquake. In the Middle Ages it was sacked by the Byzantines and the Lombards, and was later a fief of the Trinci family. It was occupied by Papal troops in the 15th century, and thenceforth it was a Papal town until the unification of Italy in 1860. After Santa Rita’s canonization in 1900, a large shrine, with the Basilica of Santa Rita da Cascia, was built in Cascia, which is still an important place of pilgrimage; and the house where she was born may still be visited.
