Kafr Zita

Kafr Zita (Arabic: كفر زيتا‎, also spelled Kfar Zita, Kafr Zayta, Kfar Zeita, Keferzita or Kafr Zeita) is a town in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located 30 kilometers north of Hama. Nearby localities include Kafr Nabudah and al-Habit to the northwest, Khan Shaykhun to the northeast, Mork to the east, Suran to the southeast, al-Lataminah, Halfaya and Mahardah to the south, Tremseh to the southwest and Kirnaz and Hayalin. According to the Syria Central Bureau of Statistics, Kafr Zita had a population of 17,052 in the 2004 census. It is also the center of a nahiyah ("subdistrict"), part of the Mhardeh District, that consists of seven localities with a combined population of 39,032 in 2004.

History

The ruins of a church dating to the Byzantine period in the 5th-century are located in Kafr Zita.

In the late Ottoman era between the 18th-19th centuries, the residents of Kafr Zita, which at that time was one of the largest villages in the area north of the Orontes River, were regularly in arrears for tax payment and had to obtain financial assistance.

Zita

Saint Zita (c. 1212 – 27 April 1272; also known as Sitha or Citha) is an Italian saint, the patron saint of maids and domestic servants. She is often appealed to in order to help find lost keys.

Life

Saint Zita was born in Tuscany in the village of Monsagrati, not far from Lucca where, at the age of 12, she became a servant in the Fatinelli household. For a long time, she was unjustly despised, overburdened, reviled, and often beaten by her employers and fellow servants for her hard work and obvious goodness. The incessant ill-usage, however, was powerless to deprive her of her inward peace, her love of those who wronged her, and her respect for her employers. By this meek and humble self-restraint, Zita at last succeeded in overcoming the malice of her fellow-servants and her employers, so much so that she was placed in charge of all the affairs of the house. Her faith had enabled her to persevere against their abuse, and her constant piety gradually moved the family to a religious awakening.

Zita (name)

Zita is female given name.

The name may originate from the Italian or Persian or Gipsy word zita meaning young girl. In Basque, the word means saint. In Greek, the word means seeker.

Name days

People with the name

Zita (Hittite prince)

Zita was a Hittite prince and probably the brother of Suppiluliuma I, (Šuppiluliumaš of the letters), in the 382–letter correspondence called the Amarna letters. The letters were mostly sent to the pharaoh of Egypt from 1350-1335 BC, but other internal letters, vassal-state letters, and epics, also word texts, are part of the letter corpus. Zita had a son called Hatupiyanza.

Zita's letter to the Egyptian pharaoh is addressed to someone at the Egyptian court.

Zita's letter to Egypt

EA 44, title: "From a Hittite prince"

In the Amarna letters, Zita is only referenced in EA 44, his own letter, (EA is for 'el Amarna'). The topic of Zita's letter is his desire for gold, and his sending of a "greeting-gift" as his payment, for a return greeting-gift of gold.

Tablet-letter: EA 44:

See also

References