According to the sanctuary, Rita was never buried, because of the veneration that began at once after her death. Her body was kept in a painted wooden casket, the Cassa Solenne, until 1745; that casket is now in her cell in the monastery. A gilded Baroque urn held the body from 1745 to 1930; the present urn dates from 1930 and was placed in the new church on 18 May 1947.
A separate sanctuary article says that the body "remained intact" after her death and that its preservation was among the facts examined before her canonization in 1900. The sanctuary also reports that medical study found a bone lesion on the forehead, where tradition places the wound of the thorn. Its present description of the body is the one given above, and it is the one to follow.
In 2000 her remains were brought to Rome for the centenary of her canonization, and St. John Paul II spoke to the pilgrims who came. Veneration is directed to the saint, and through her to Christ.