“I tell you the truth, the master will put that servant in charge of all he owns.”

 

Luke 12:44

 

St Zita of Lucca

     Patroness of Domestic Workers

In the past there have been suggestions that this might actually be St Osytha, an Anglo-Saxon princess from Essex. However, modern research confirms that Sitha was the English name given to St Zita of Lucca.

Rev Canon Geoffrey Harbord provides further details:

In the 13th and 14th centuries, English merchants trading in Italy brought the stories of St Zita of Lucca to this country. Devotion to her was widespread, and there were shrines to her from London to York. There are records of pilgrims travelling from Brodsworth in South Yorkshire to a shrine of Zita at Eagle in Lincolnshire.

Zita was not a woman of great status or power in life. She worked as a household servant from the age of 12 until her death. She was not venerated for her great achievements; it was in the very ordinariness of her life that her holiness was seen.

She is often depicted in art baking bread or holding keys. She shows us that saintliness does not only consist of grand, heroic acts, or gory tales of martyrdom. We can come to holiness if we do the simple things of life by doing them as offerings to God.

During her working life, Zita gave up much of her food, and that of her employers, to the poor and needy. At first she was criticised for doing this, but when her employers saw the good that she was doing, they encouraged her.

Zita is seen as the Patroness of Domestic Workers, and she is often invoked for help in finding lost keys. Images of Zita often include keys. Her body is still venerated in Lucca Cathedral to this day

If you stand back from the alcove (by the pew), you can clearly see the shape of the statue before it was removed in the Reformation.

The inscription actually reads “Scā Sitha” which is an abbreviation for “Sancta Sitha”,
or “Saint Sitha” which is the name by which St Zita of Lucca was known.