St. Maximilian Kolbe
Reflections on St. Maximilian Kolbe
Today August 14, on the Feast of St Maxmillian Kolbe, my thoughts go back to a cold and bleak December 1991 morning when we visited the notorious Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz I with its disingenuous wrought-iron sign over the entrance gates that said ""Arbeit macht frei" (German for "work makes you free"). It remains one of the most haunting experiences of my life but there was silver lining when we came across the memorial to St Maxmillian Kolbe in cell 11.
The remarkable St Maxmillian Kolbe:
Born Rajmund Kolbe on January 8, 1894, in Zduńska Wola, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire), he was the son of a weaver. As a boy, he reportedly had a vision of the Virgin Mary offering him two crowns—one white (purity) and one red (martyrdom). He said he accepted both.
He entered the Conventual Franciscans, taking the name Maximilian, and was ordained a priest in Rome in 1918, where he also earned doctorates in philosophy and theology. While still a seminarian, he founded the Militia Immaculatae (Army of the Immaculate One) in 1917, a movement dedicated to Marian consecration and evangelization.
Returning to Poland, Kolbe became a pioneer of Catholic media, founding the friary of Niepokalanów ("City of the Immaculate"), which grew into one of the largest religious houses in the world, running a printing press, radio station, and eventually an airstrip for evangelization efforts. His magazine Knight of the Immaculata reached massive circulation. He also spent several years as a missionary in Japan, founding a monastery near Nagasaki.
When Poland was invaded in 1939, Kolbe's friary sheltered thousands of refugees, including a large number of Jews, whom the friars hid and protected at great risk. In 1941, the Gestapo arrested him for continuing his religious publishing work, and he was sent to Auschwitz, where he wrote this letter:
Dear Mama,
At the end of the month of May I was transferred to the camp of Auschwitz. Everything is well in my regard. Be tranquil about me and about my health, because the good God is everywhere and provides for everything with love. It would be well that you do not write to me until you will have received other news from me, because I do not know how long I will stay here.
Cordial greetings and kisses,
affectionately,
Raymond [his birth name].
At Auschwitz, after a prisoner escaped, the guards selected ten men to die by starvation as reprisal. When one chosen man, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out for his wife and children, Kolbe stepped forward and offered to take his place. The request was granted.
Here is what Gajowniczek said: "I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me — a stranger. Is this some dream? I was put back into my place without having had time to say anything to Maximilian Kolbe. I was saved. And I owe to him the fact that I could tell you all this. The news quickly spread all round the camp. It was the first and the last time that such an incident happened in the whole history of Auschwitz."
In the starvation bunker, he led the other condemned men in prayer and hymns. After two weeks, he was among the last survivors and was killed by lethal injection on August 14, 1941—the eve of the Feast of the Assumption.
Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1982, declaring him a martyr of charity. Franciszek Gajowniczek, the man he saved, was present at the ceremony. Kolbe is the patron saint of drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, and the pro-life movement. His feast day is August 14.
He entered the Conventual Franciscans, taking the name Maximilian, and was ordained a priest in Rome in 1918, where he also earned doctorates in philosophy and theology. While still a seminarian, he founded the Militia Immaculatae (Army of the Immaculate One) in 1917, a movement dedicated to Marian consecration and evangelization.
Returning to Poland, Kolbe became a pioneer of Catholic media, founding the friary of Niepokalanów ("City of the Immaculate"), which grew into one of the largest religious houses in the world, running a printing press, radio station, and eventually an airstrip for evangelization efforts. His magazine Knight of the Immaculata reached massive circulation. He also spent several years as a missionary in Japan, founding a monastery near Nagasaki.
When Poland was invaded in 1939, Kolbe's friary sheltered thousands of refugees, including a large number of Jews, whom the friars hid and protected at great risk. In 1941, the Gestapo arrested him for continuing his religious publishing work, and he was sent to Auschwitz, where he wrote this letter:
Dear Mama,
At the end of the month of May I was transferred to the camp of Auschwitz. Everything is well in my regard. Be tranquil about me and about my health, because the good God is everywhere and provides for everything with love. It would be well that you do not write to me until you will have received other news from me, because I do not know how long I will stay here.
Cordial greetings and kisses,
affectionately,
Raymond [his birth name].
At Auschwitz, after a prisoner escaped, the guards selected ten men to die by starvation as reprisal. When one chosen man, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out for his wife and children, Kolbe stepped forward and offered to take his place. The request was granted.
Here is what Gajowniczek said: "I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me — a stranger. Is this some dream? I was put back into my place without having had time to say anything to Maximilian Kolbe. I was saved. And I owe to him the fact that I could tell you all this. The news quickly spread all round the camp. It was the first and the last time that such an incident happened in the whole history of Auschwitz."
In the starvation bunker, he led the other condemned men in prayer and hymns. After two weeks, he was among the last survivors and was killed by lethal injection on August 14, 1941—the eve of the Feast of the Assumption.
Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1982, declaring him a martyr of charity. Franciszek Gajowniczek, the man he saved, was present at the ceremony. Kolbe is the patron saint of drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, and the pro-life movement. His feast day is August 14.
Reflection:
As a young boy, St
Maximilian Kolbe, accepted the two crowns of purity and martyrdom that
the most Blessed Virgin Mary offered him. Do you have quiet moments in
your busy life when you pause to listen to divine whispering that nudges
you to doing God's work?
References:
1. Massimiliano Maria Kolbe, O.F.M. Conv. (1894-1941) - biografia. (n.d.). https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19821010_massimiliano_kolbe_it.html2. August, M. (2023, August 14). The Artist and the Stone: St. Maximilian Kolbe. https://thedivinemercy.org. https://thedivinemercy.org/articles/artist-and-stone-st-maximilian-kolbe
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