… Lucca celebrates Saint Zita – the city’s most beloved saint. Zita lived in the 13th century and worked as a maid for the wealthy Fatinelli family. She performed many miracles, but the most beautiful is the one in which she turned bread into flowers: one day she had hidden some bread in her apron to give to the poor later. But the master of the house saw her and asked suspiciously, ‘Zita, what do you have there in your apron?’ She replied, ‘Flowers!’ And indeed, the apron was full of flowers! To celebrate this miracle, the squares around the Basilica of San Frediano, where she is buried, are decorated with floral arrangements and plants, and a flower market is also held in the nearby amphitheatre – every 27 April.
Did you know that Saint Zita is the patron saint of maids?
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