St. Zita

Who they were

Zita entered service in the Fatinelli household of Lucca at twelve and stayed until she died at sixty: the same kitchen, the same stairs, forty eight years. The early years were miserable. The family resented her and the other servants tormented her for a piety that felt like reproach. Her answer, sustained for decades, was to be unfailingly good at the work and unfailingly kind, until the household that had bullied her ended up effectively governed by her.

Her work was her prayer is the line the tradition settled on. She gave away bread from the pantry with a generosity that produced the predictable legends and the predictable audits, and she tended the poor of Lucca at the door of a house that was not hers. Lucca treated her as a saint by acclamation centuries before Rome confirmed it in 1696. Her body rests, remarkably preserved, in the basilica of San Frediano, where Lucca still brings her flowers every April.

Why people turn to St. Zita

Housekeepers, cleaners, nannies, and home health aides: everyone whose essential work happens in someone else's house. The lost keys patronage comes from an old legend and makes her, with Anthony, half of the most practical pair on this site.

How to ask their intercession

Before the shift in a house where you are not family. And yes, for the keys. The tradition is old, cheerful, and allowed.