6 1 have come to pray

for peace and unity'
"T HAVE come to Moscow on the feast-day of the Assump
tion, which is the greatest feast-day dedicated to Mary in the West and in the East, to pray at the tomb and at the altar of St. Sergius," Signor Giorgio La Pira, the former mayor of Florence, told the rector of the theological academy at Zagorsk, 37 miles north-east of Moscow, when he arrived at this, the largest Russian monastery, during his current visit to the Soviet Union.
" This is the only aim of my visit: to pray for the unity and peace of .the Church and for the unity and peace of all peoples in the world ", continued Signor La Pira, who is one of the most outstanding members of the Italian Christian Democrats.
Many of us
"And I am not alone in this. Today all the cloistered nuns in the world have prayed along with me for the same intention, I wrote to them concerning this, and today. therefore, there are many of us doing the same thing."
The reaction of Fr. Constantine Rujitsky, the rector, was : "A man who says such things as these is not thanked by us but embraced by us."
The account of Signor La Pira's trip to Russia has been published by the Florence Christian Democrat daily Giornale del Maitino in a very full report from its Moscow correspondent. Before going to Zagorsk, which is dedicated to the Assumption and which was founded by St. Sergius, he attended Mass at Moscow's only Catholic church, St. Louis, where the congregation sang hymns in Russian to Our Lady.
During his visit to Zagorsk Signor La Pira gave Fr. Rujitsky some reproductions of the painting
of the Assumption in the church of the Sa ntissima An nu nzia ta in Florence with an invocation in Russian to Mary. Queen of Peace.
The Council
Fr. Rujitsky several times asked for news of the Pope and of the Catholic world. "The Pope is indeed a father who, with the calling of the Ecumenical Council, has opened his arms to all Christians and all peoples of the world," answered Signor La Pira.
"You must return to give lessons to the students in our theological academy," said Fr. Rujitsky. "Who knows?" replied the Italian. "The ways of Providence arc infinite, Now the ice has been broken,"
This trip to Russia by Signor La Pira is linked with his pilgrimage last summer to Fatima, when he prayed that the prophecy of peace would come about. From Zagorsk he was due to go on to Kiev, the cradle of Russian Christianity.