• Mike Bennett
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EMPRESS ZITA - "SERVANT OF GOD" Empress Zita was wife of Blessed Karl I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She was born in Tuscany, Italy in 1892. She was one of seventeen children. In 1911, she married the then Archduke Karl/Charles of Austria. On the eve of their wedding, Karl told Zita: "Now we must help each other attain heaven." When, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in 1914, setting off World War I, the elderly Emperor Franz Joseph I was the last emperor living before Karl I acceded to the throne. Karl I became the new and last emperor of Austria-Hungary, when Franz Joseph died in 1916. At the end of World War I in 1918, The Hapsburg Dynasty of which Karl was member , was deposed. The Emperor Karl and his wife Zita along with their seven children were exiled to Madeira, Portugal. The family was reduced to poverty. Months after their arrival, Emperor Karl died of pneumonia. His death left Zita a widow at age 29 and expecting their eighth child. She never remarried. She was determined to raise her eight children in a devout Catholic household. Zita died in the early hours of 14 March 1989. She was 96 years old, and was the last surviving child of Robert, Duke of Parma from both his marriages. On 10 December 2009, Mgr. Yves Le Saux, Bishop of Le Mans, France, opened the diocesan process for the beatification of Zita. She was declared "Servant of God" by Pope Benedict XVI. The link below will help you learn more about this Holy "Servant of God". https://www.empresszitacause.com/

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Anonymous Guest

Joanie Holliday 18 Mar 2023

BEAUTIFUL WORK MIKE. GOOD HISTORY

Artist Reply: Thanks so much Joannie. Her story and her husband's is perfect for a movie.