Every year, in the area of Piazza S. Frediano and Piazza Anfiteatro, in the days preceding April 27, a plant and flower market is held.
 

The Saint, born in 1218 to a peasant family from Monsagrati, worked as a maid for the rich Fatinelli family in Lucca.

Arnould de Vuez 1712

She was known as a very humble and generous person with poor people, so much so that, one day, her master, meeting Zita with an apron full of food to be given in charity, asked her sternly what she was hiding.
Zita replied: "Flowers and foliage" and miraculously, once the apron was untied, flowers and foliage fell down.

After Zita's death on 27 April 1278, the Fatinellis wanted to bury her in the family chapel in the Basilica of S. Frediano where she is still exposed today for the veneration of the faithful.

The cult of the Saint was proclaimed by Innocent XII on 5 September 1696.

Her body, preserved in the basilica of San Frediano, is exhibited on the feast day for offerings and vows.

Saint Zita is the patron saint of housewives and maids. Tradition dictates that on these days bouquets of daffodils and classic herb cakes are offered.