Venerable Giorgio La Pira

Giorgio La Pira, TOSD (Raimondo in religious life; 9 January 1904 – 5 November 1977) was an Italian Catholic politician who served as the mayor of Florence. He also served as a deputy for Christian Democracy (DC), the ruling party of post-war Italy, and participated in the assembly that wrote the Italian Constitution following World War II. In his public and private life he was a tireless champion of peace and human rights who worked for the betterment of the poor and disenfranchised. La Pira belonged to the Third Order of Saint Dominic. From 1934 until his death, he lived in the San Marco complex. La Pira was a staunch advocate for peace and made several trips to the East to places such as China and the Soviet Union, which were sometimes deemed to be controversial in the Cold War era. Those trips were undertaken to discuss peace ventures and ends to conflict with La Pira also prioritizing ecumenism as a reason for visiting Moscow where he often met with members of the Russian Orthodox Church. La Pira's cause for sainthood opened in the 1980s and he was a Servant of God. He became titled as Venerable on 5 July 2018 when Pope Francis confirmed that he had lived a life of heroic virtue. La Pira was born on 9 January 1904 in Pozzallo, Ragusa, Sicily, to a Sicilian packing-house worker. He was the first of six children born to Gaetano La Pira (1870–1937) and Angela Occhipinti (1876–1943). He was baptized on the following 7 February with his maternal uncle Luigi (1880–1973) as his godfather. His maternal aunt was Settimia Machi Bartolini (1888–1945). His siblings were Salvatore (1905–1975), Giuseppina (1908–1990), Giovannino (1912–2003), Maria Cristina (1913–1980), and Ernesto (1915–2005). One close friend was Salvatore Quasimodo who was a future Nobel prize-winner for literature and another friend was Giuseppe Lazzati. He often read Dante Aligheri as well as Plato and Saint Thomas More.