 At the age of ten , Zita was sent to a boarding school at <unk> in Upper Bavaria , where there was a strict regime of study and religious instruction . She was summoned home in the autumn of 1907 at the death of her father . Her maternal grandmother sent Zita and her sister Franziska to a convent on the Isle of Wight to complete her education . Brought up as devout Catholics , the Parma children regularly undertook good works for the poor . In Schwarzau the family turned surplus cloth into clothes . Zita and Franziska personally distributed food , clothing , and medicines to the needy in Pianore . Three of Zita 's sisters became nuns and , for a time , she considered following the same path . Zita went through a patch of poor health and was sent for the traditional cure at a European spa for two years . 
