HEAVENLY
BRICKS

St. Zita of Lucca was born to a poor family and thus was sent to work as a servant for a wealthy family when she was just 12. She got up early to walk to Mass every day, and the family she worked for treated her very poorly, but Zita humbly worked on, always donating a third of her income to the poor. There are many miracles attributed to Zita, usually associated with helping those even less fortunate than her. Once, she was taking extra bread from her master's house, carrying the bread wrapped in her cloak. When some of the other servants called the master on her. When he confronted her, she opened the cloak, but all that was inside it were flowers. Lifetime:  1212 to 1272 Region:  Italy Patronages:  Homemakers; Lost keys; Servers Iconograpy:  Keys; Cloakful of flowers Feast Day:  April 27

St. Margaret of Castello began life with many challenges. She was born blind, experienced dwarfism, and had difficulties walking from an early age. Out of shame, her parents hid her in a small cell in the castle the lived in. They tried to bring her to a monastery in hopes of receiving a miraculous cure for their daughter, but when she was not cured, they abandoned her there. Young Margaret soon got a reputation in the area for her fervor of her faith, and eventually opened a school for the poor children who lived around her. She later joined a Dominican monastery where she lived until her death in her 30s.  Margaret's body was eventually exhumed and her body was found to be incorrupt, despite the decay of her coffin and clothes, and she became beatified in 1609, though she wasn't fully canonized as a saint until 2021. Lifetime:  1287 to 1320 Region:  Modern Italy Patronages:  People with disabilities; The blind Iconograpy:  Dominican habit; Walking stick Feast ...