Svetlana Alliluyeva - Conversion To Roman Catholicism

Conversion To Roman Catholicism

Alliluyeva was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church on March 20, 1962. During her years of exile she flirted with various religions. She then turned to the Greek Orthodox church and is also reported to have thought of becoming a nun. In 1967, Alliluyeva found herself spending time with Roman Catholics in Switzerland and encountered multiple American Christianities during her time in the United States. She received a letter from Father Garbolino, an Italian Catholic priest from Pennsylvania, inviting her to make a pilgrimage to the Virgin of Fatima, in Portugal, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of 'the apparitions'. In 1969 Garbolino, who was in New Jersey, came to visit Alliluyeva at Princeton. In California she lived with Catholics Rose and Michael Ginciracusa for two years, from 1976. She read books by authors such as Raissa Maritain. In Cambridge, England, during December 1982, on the feast of Santa Lucia, Advent, Alliluyeva converted to the Roman Catholic Church.