On 27 March, to mark the fifth anniversary of the death of the apostolic protonotary Msgr. Bernardo Antonini, who lived in Russia for over a decade, a ceremony of commemoration will be held in the archdiocese of Our Lady in Moscow. The ceremony will be opened by a mass celebrated in the Catholic cathedral. This will be followed by the inauguration of various photographic exhibitions in other churches of the capital and in those of St. Petersburg, which will remain open until Easter. Meetings with priests, men and women religious are planned for 2-3 April. A special number of the Catholic weekly Svet Evangelia (The Light of the Gospel), founded by Msgr. Antonini himself, will be published to mark the anniversary, with features on the life and apostolate of the Italian priest in Russia. Radio Maria, the Catholic radio station also founded by Msgr. Antonini in St. Petersburg, will dedicate various programmes to him, as also will the Dar (Gift) radio station in Moscow. The Russian Bishops’ Conference is also thinking of creating on its own website a special page dedicated to the life and work of the apostolic protonotary, including possible eyewitness accounts of those who knew him. Msgr. Antonini was also the founder of the “St. Thomas Aquinas” College of Theology, and promoter and director of the “Mary Queen of the Apostles” Theological Seminary in St. Petersburg, the first to be established in the former Soviet Union. The Seminary intends to commemorate its former director by instituting an annual prize, named after him, for the most deserving seminarian, and by naming its library after him.
