Zita (Cita), Saint (ZITA (CITA), SANTA) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XII, p. 1109

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ZITA (CITA), saint. - A virgin of Lucca, born at Monsagrati (Tuscany) in 1218, died at Lucca on 27 April 1272, as attested by the contemporary Vita (cf. Acta SS. cited below, p. 507).

At the age of twelve, while in service in the Patinelli household of Lucca, she suffered from the harshness of her employers and fellow servants; but, having subsequently gained esteem and trust, she was entrusted with the management of the household. Immediately after her death, her reputation for holiness, confirmed by numerous miracles, aroused the veneration of the faithful. Her body was laid in the basilica of S. Frediano at Lucca, where it is venerated as almost incorrupt. The cult of the Saint was authorized by Paganello, bishop of Lucca, about May 1278 (Dante recalls «un degli anziani di s. Z.»; Inferno, XXI, 34-42); confirmed by Innocent XII on 5 September 1696, it spread throughout Italy, then to Europe and America. The Saint is invoked by domestic servants, of whom she was declared patroness on 26 September 1953. Feast: 27 April.

BIBL.: the Vita, by a contemporary, partly in Acta SS. Aprilis, III, Anversa 1675, pp. 499-510, is preserved in a fourteenth-century manuscript copy at Lucca (Bibl. governativa). The Miracula, recorded by a contemporary notary, in Acta SS., loc. cit., pp. 510-27. Records of the seventeenth-century canonization process, in Arch. vescovile di Lucca. Biographies: A. Guerra, Istoria della vita di s. Z., 2ª ed., Parma 1895; F. P. Luiso, L'anziano di s. Z., Lucca 1927 (cf. review by B. de Gaiffier, in Anal. Bolland, 48 [1930], pp. 229-30); C. Boffa, S. Z., vergine lucchese, Alba 1935; G. Casali, S. Z., Lucca 1936; Martyr, Romanum, pp. 158-59; P. Puccinelli, S. Z., vergine lucchese, Lucca 1940.