I'm a ‘granny.' I have 11 grandchildren, and my family, made up of my nephews and nieces and their children, in addition to my husband and myself and our children, constitutes for me a fixed and important point in my life. So this naturally limits the time that I can devote to my other great interest, ecumenism, and the improvement of relations between separated Christians. But I consider it my duty to place myself at the service of the Church and thus of Christianity." These few words give an insight into the character of another one of our choices for "Person of the Year," the Italian noblewoman, the Marquise Immacolata Solaro del Borgo, 77, a member of Rome's historically powerful Colonna family.
Immacolata's ancestors include princes and Popes, and she is among our "Top Ten" because of her commitment to building better relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, divided since 1054 — now nearly 1,000 years.
She is firmly convinced that "in a time of ferocious de-Christianization, Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants ought to unite against the atheistic thought which has been increasingly bold and now seems in many places to dominate our culture."
Immacolata learned Russian in mid-life, during tourist visits to Russia before the Berlin Wall came down. She learned the language easily, "almost without noticing it," she says.
This energetic and decisive grandmother, after the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986, dedicated herself to raising money for the children in Chernobyl.
After making many trips to Russia, she has been able to build up a remarkable network of friendships and contacts in that country, especially among the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church. She counts as personal friends many of the leading members of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy, including Metropolitan Kirill and Metropolitan Sergei.
On May 13, 2007, though nearly 80 and suffering from soreness in her feet, she traveled to Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, bringing with her six precious relics of saints and a tiny fragment of clothing which once belonged to Mary, the mother of Jesus. The relics, belonging to St. Basil the Great, St. Blaise, St. Nicholas, St. Daria, St. Natalia and St. Pancratius, were collected in a single reliquary, fashioned by a Neapolitan jeweler in the 1600s, with a small silver box in the center where the fragment of Mary's clothing was preserved.
"I bring these relics as my gift to you, and to the people of Russia, as a sign of my respect and love for Russia and all her people," Immacolata said to the Russian Orthodox bishop of Kazan, Anastasi, as she handed over the gift. "I hope the relics can enrich the new Marian sanctuary you are building around the icon of Our Lady of Kazan."
Still today Immacolata recalls that moment with sincere emotion. She handed over the relics in the main Orthodox cathedral of Kazan. Kazan is where the famous icon of Kazan was first found, the icon which is considered one of the holiest in Russia, and which left the country after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1918, but was protected and venerated for many years by Pope John Paul II in his private apartment in the Vatican (from 1993 until 2004) before it was returned to Russia on August 28, 2004.
The ceremony of the handing over of the relics was attended by thousands of Orthodox believers and was broadcast throughout Russia by Russian national television. Immacolata even received an email from a friend in Moscow who said he had seen her on television, walking without shoes. He said all Russia marveled at the humility and simplicity of this Italian lady.
On that occasion, among the many Russian journalists present, there was also a foreign correspondent, Robert Moynihan, the editor-in-chief of Inside the Vatican. After the ceremony of the donation of the relics, he spoke briefly with Bishop Anastasi, who said the people of Kazan would never forget the gift brought by Immacolata, and the fact that at the age of almost 80, she had traveled from Rome to Kazan to bring the extraordinary gifts personally.
On earlier occasions, Immacolata had given a relic of St. Nicholas to Alexy II, Patriarch of Moscow and of All Russia, and a relic of St. George to the Orthodox monastery of Nikolo- Ugreshsky, near Moscow.
In fact, whether in Rome or in Moscow, whenever there is an ecumenical occasion involving the Russian Orthodox, the Marquise Immacolata generally finds a way to be present in a discreet and humble way. And this past spring, she was present at the concert sponsored by Inside the Vatican just before Easter, on March 29, 2007, in the Auditorium of St. Cecilia on Via della Conciliazione, a few steps from the Vatican.
At the end of the concert, an event which marked a moment of closeness between Catholics and Orthodox, especially because Easter this past year was celebrated on the same Sunday in both Churches, who offered a just homage to the composer of the Passion According to St. Matthew? The Marquise Immacolata, carrying a bouquet of flowers up the steps and onto the stage.
A year ago, Immacolata became the highest-ranking woman in the Knights of Malta in Italy. She now holds a diplomatic passport for the sovereign military order, and continues to work in Russia to fight the tragedy of alcoholism. "I believe each one of us has a task to perform," she says. "I believe that the Lord never asks us to do anything that is impossible. It is up to us to listen for his call and to accept it when we hear it, and act."
