The new grave of Giorgio La Pira in the basilica of Saint Mark in Florence will be blessed on Monday 5th November by card. Josè Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for the causes of the saints, during a Eucharistic celebration thirty years after the mayor’s death. The body, transferred a few days ago from the cemetery of Rifredi, was placed on the left wall of the church, next to the statue of Savonarola and the graves of Pico della Mirandola and the painter Agnolo Poliziano. The new grave, designed by the architect Riccardo Mattei, means to recall the Sicilian roots of La Pira and his attachment to Florence with its plinth of Sicilian stone and the gravestone of pietra serena from the hills of Florence. The transfer, explained this morning the prior of Saint Mark’s, father Fausto Sbaffoni, and the president of Fondazione La Pira, Mario Primicerio, was requested by the Congregation for the causes of the Saints as part of the process of beatification of La Pira, which was begun in 1986 by the then cardinal of Florence Silvano Piovanelli. On the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the mayor’s death, on Monday 5th the University of Florence too will commemorate the mayor with a conference by the emeritus president of the Constitutional Court, Valerio Onida, about "La Pira, peoples, peace".
