Print This Post


On 30 September 2011, the last day of his trip to Italy, Metropolitan Hilarion, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, attended the concert of Russian and Italian religious music called “Beauty will save the world” performed in Milan as a part of the Year of Russian Culture and Russian Language in Italy.

The Moscow Synodal Choir conducted by Alexei Puzakov and the Symphony Orchestra of the Academy delle opera under Diego Montrone performed religious pieces by Sergei Rachmaninov, Guiseppe Verdi, and Armando Pierucci under the vaults of the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Gracie. The mural painting by Leonardo da Vinci, “The Last Supper”, is on a wall of the refectory. Also performed at the concert was “A Song of Ascents” symphony for choir and orchestra by Metropolitan Hilarion.

Ms. Svetlana Medvedeva, the wife of the Russian President, attended the concert.

Metropolitan Hilarion and his suite departed for Moscow after the concert. The trip was sponsored by the St. Gregory the Theologian Charity Foundation.