St. Zita of Lucca

St. Zita of Lucca was born to a poor family and thus was sent to work as a servant for a wealthy family when she was just 12. She got up early to walk to Mass every day, and the family she worked for treated her very poorly, but Zita humbly worked on, always donating a third of her income to the poor. There are many miracles attributed to Zita, usually associated with helping those even less fortunate than her. Once, she was taking extra bread from her master's house, carrying the bread wrapped in her cloak. When some of the other servants called the master on her. When he confronted her, she opened the cloak, but all that was inside it were flowers.


Lifetime: 1212 to 1272
Region: Italy
Patronages: Homemakers; Lost keys; Servers
Iconograpy: Keys; Cloakful of flowers
Feast Day: April 27

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