The First Lady presented to the Academy a catalogue of 26,739 books from the papal universities of Rome and libraries of northern Italy.
The Foundation for Social and Cultural Initiatives, which Mrs Medvedeva heads, was active in the search for these books and also in reconstructing the Moscow Spiritual Academy’s library. “It is one of Russia’s main spiritual and cultural centres, and so its reconstruction has great significance,” the First Lady said.
In March, the Russian Cultural Centre opened at Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University. “The librarian at the Marciana national library, on behalf of the secretary for Christian unity and main donor, Cardinal Kurt Koch, gave us the certificate for the books at that moment,” Svetlana Medvedeva said.
The books are now in Tarquinia, in the ancient church of St Anthony. Once the cataloguing process is complete, the books will be sent to Russia, where they will be kept at the Moscow Spiritual Academy’s library.