Archbishop Pavel Maria Hnilica, S.J., died in the early morning of the October 8, 2006. Bishop Hnilica was consecrated Bishop of Czechoslovakia at the age of 30 by his own bishop, who was then near to death. It was Bishop Hnilica who performed the Consecration of Russia, in union with Pope John Paul II on March 25, 1984, after secretly entering the Soviet Union. He performed the consecration in the Church of St. Michael in St. Peter’s Square. Bishop Hnilica died on the anniversary of the Entrustment to Our Lady of the New Millennium that Pope John Paul II performed in the Great Jubilee Year, October 8, 2000. Bishop Hnilica was actively involved with John Paul II in seeing that the consecrations that Heaven required be fulfilled. It was Providential, then, that he would have died on the anniversary of the Entrustment to Our Lady, a significant consecration of the world to Our Lady.
