Russian samovar
Fr. Hesburgh told the story of a Russian student at Notre Dame who came to his office because his mother was dying in Kazakhstan. She couldn’t get a visa to come the United States for a special treatment, so Fr. Hesburgh called the U.S. Ambassador to Russia, an old friend, to arrange the passage. The hospital treatment saved her life, and she sent as a gift the samovar, a traditional vessel used to boil water for tea.