Skip to main content

SAINT FEAST DAY 27 APRIL: ST ZITA

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 27th of April

WELCOME!

SAINT ZITA - LIVING CHRIST'S GOSPEL THROUGH HOUSEWORK

As a dedicated house-servant, St Zita quickly became a saint for domestic servants to invoke. Today domestic servants are fewer. Nonetheless, Zita still remains a saint for women engaged in the humdrum but necessary tasks of housekeeping, whether in their home or for someone else.

Zita was born in Monte Sagrati, Italy. Her parents were devout Christians, and their devotion shaped the outlook of Zita and the other children. In those days, Tuscany had no laws restricting child labour. Therefore, when she was only twelve, Zita started her lifetime job as one of the house-servants of a man named Pagano di Fatinelli. He lived in the nearby city of Lucca and ran a prosperous weaving business.

A MATURE SENSE OF PIETY

Zita, despite her youth, brought with her a mature sense of piety. From the outset, she would rise at night to pray, and in the early morning attend Mass before work-hours began. At first this annoyed her fellow-servants. She worked harder than was necessary, they thought. Her unwillingness to engage in coarse talk they took as criticism of themselves – as did her rejection of the free-and-easy attentions of the men-servants. For a time, her fellow domestics even persuaded Pagano to misjudge Zita. Meanwhile, the little girl went right ahead with her diligent work and her spiritual programme, bearing with great patience these petty trials. Eventually, her perseverance won over the opposition. Her fellow employees came to respect her convictions, and Pagano and his wife counted themselves lucky to possess such a jewel of a servant.

Zita’s principle was that her work was a part of her service to God. ‘A servant is not good,’ she used to say, ‘if she is not industrious: work-shy piety in people of our position is a sham.’ Pagano eventually made her his official housekeeper. But, although he now respected her, he still had a violent temper, so she had to treat him carefully.

THE AMAZING MULTIPLICATION OF BEANS

Once, for instance, Zita dug very deeply into the family store of beans in order to help the poor. She told her mistress this, but both of them feared the reaction of Pagano when he found out. Wouldn’t you know it, he asked soon afterwards for an inventory of the beans. He had decided to sell a large part of them. Zita asked God to take over, and her prayer was answered miraculously. When the store of beans was examined, there were still just as many as there had been before Zita had doled them out.

THE WONDERFUL RE-APPEARANCE OF THE EXPENSIVE COAT

God helped this servant miraculously, or at least providentially, on other occasions as well. One cold Christmas Dy when she set out for early Mass, Pagano threw his expensive coat over her shoulders to keep her warm. At the same time, he warned her not to lose the coat. But at church Zita encountered a half-naked man trembling with cold. She loaned him the coat for the duration of the Mass. At the end of Mass, however, the man and the coat both disappeared.

THE MAN DISAPPEARED

We may well imagine Pagano’s volcanic fury when his housekeeper humbly told him the story. However, just as they sat down to their Christmas dinner, a stranger appeared at the door and handed the coat back. When the boss and housekeeper tried to engage him in conversation, he disappeared. Nevertheless, both felt in their hearts that something wonderful had just happened. Ever since then, the people of Lucca have given the name ‘The Angel Door’ to the church entrance where Zita loaned the freezing man Pagano’s fur coat.

THE ANGEL DOOR

Zita was far more upset by the veneration people tried to show her than by all the rages of Pagano. As she grew older, her domestic duties were reduced, but she simply spent more time visiting the sick and imprisoned. She prayed with special intensity for prisoners condemned to death.

Zita the housekeeper, now aged sixty, died peacefully on April 27, 1278. Her tomb-shrine is in the church of San Frediano where she hd long attended daily Mass. On September 26, 1953, Pope Pius XII declared her the patron saint of domestic workers.

Housewives, in the kitchen, that includes you, too!

This article by Fr Robert McNamara entitled “Saints Alive” was published in the “Divine Mercy Newsletter”, paper edition, 2013 Vol.71.

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Saint Zita may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

WELCOME

  Please pick your saints: January - Saints by date  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30    31   February - Saints by date  1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17 18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29   March - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30    31   April - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30   May - Saints by date: 1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17   18    19    20    21    22    23    24    25    26    27    28    29    30   

ST JOHN BERCHMANS, RELIGIOUS - 13 AUGUST

  ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN AUGUST Saints celebrated on the 13th of August WELCOME! SAINT JOHN BERCHMANS, RELIGIOUS   (Patron Saint of Altar Servers.) The eldest boy of a poor cordwainer, in a small Belgian town, John was ever a dutiful, prayerful, and studious child. Our Lord called him when but young to leave his father and his father’s house, to serve Him in the Society of Jesus.  And because he was so good a son, it cost his father much to give him up to God; but he was too good a Christian to refuse outright.  HE WAS SENT TO ROME John had hardly taken his religious vows when he was sent to the centre of Christendom, the holy city of Rome. His modesty, his purity, shone out as great virtue always does; and the young laymen who attended the lectures would come to gaze upon his beautiful and holy face, and go away the better for the sight. GREAT VIRTUE Three short years, and his last sickness found him sighing for heaven, and three days before the great feast of Mary’s Assumption in 1

ST LAURA OF CORDOBA, WIDOW AND MARTYR - 19 OCTOBER

  WELCOME! SAINT LAURA OF CORDOBA, WIDOW AND MARTYR   Laura, a widow and martyr of Cordoba in Spain, is mentioned in the Spanish martyrology of Tamajode Salazar, who refers to Luitprand, where it says the following: St Laura is said to have been of a noble family, and  according to the wishes of her parents she married an equally noble man and gave birth to two daughters.  After the death of her husband and her daughters, she went to the monastery of St Aurea, named St-Maria de Cuteclara, and after her martyrdom led the same for nine years as her successor.  After she had made wonderful progress in all virtues, she was finally summoned to renounce the faith before a Saracen judge. But since she remained steadfast, she was first beaten very cruelly and then thrown into a bath of boiling pitch, where she remained in praise of God for three hours and then flew to heaven on October 19, 864.   St Laura is of the 48 Martyrs of Cordoba. PRAYER: Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who