St. Maximilian
Kolbe 1904
![[photograph of Saint Maximilian]](./maxmilian%20kolbe_files/image003.jpg "3kb jpg photograph of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, photographer unknown, date unknown; please do no write to ask about the image")
Feastday
14th August
Born 1894
Died 1941
Second
of three sons born to a poor but pious Catholic family in Russian occupied
Poland. His parents, both Franciscan lay tertiaries, worked at home as weavers.
His father, Julius, later ran a religious book store, then enlisted in
Pilsudski's army, fought for Polish independence from Russia, and was hanged by
the Russians as a traitor in 1914. His mother, Marianne Dabrowska, later became
a Benedictine nun. His brother Alphonse became a priest. Raymond was known as a
mischievous child, sometimes considered wild, and a trial to his parents.
However, in 1906 at Pabianice, at age twelve and around the time of his first
Communion, he received a vision of the Virgin Mary that changed his life. I
asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding
two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked if I was willing to accept
either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity,
and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them
both. -Saint Maximilian He entered the
Franciscan junior seminary in Lwow, Poland in 1907 where he excelled in
mathematics and physics. For a while he wanted to abandon the priesthood for
the military, but eventually relented to the call to religious life, and on 4
September 1910 he became a novice in the Conventual Franciscan Order at age 16.
He took the name Maximilian, made his first vows on 5 September 1911, his final
vows on 1 November 1914. Studied
philosophy at the Jesuit Gregorian College in Rome from 1912 to 1915, and
theology at the Franciscan Collegio Serafico in Rome from 1915 to 1919. On 16
October 1917, while still in seminary, he and six friends founded the
Immaculata Movement (Militia Immaculatae, Crusade of Mary Immaculate) devoted
to the conversion of sinners, opposition to freemasonry (which was extremely
anti-Catholic at the time), spread of the Miraculous Medal (which they wore as
their habit), and devotion to Our Lady and the path to Christ. Stricken with
tuberculosis which nearly killed him, and left him in frail in health the rest
of his life. Ordained on 28 April 1918 in Rome at age 24. Received his Doctor
of Theology on 22 July 1922; his insights into Marian theology echo today
through their influence on Vatican II. Maximilian
returned to Poland on 29 July 1919 to teach history in the Crakow seminary. He
had to take a medical leave from 10 August 1920 to 28 April 1921 to be treated
for tuberculosis at the hospital at Zakpane in the Tatra Mountains. In January
1922 he began publication of the magazine Knight of the Immaculate to fight
religious apathy; by 1927 the magazine had a press run of 70,000 issues. He was
forced to take another medical leave from 18 September 1926 to 13 April 1927,
but the work continued. The friaries from which he had worked were not large
enough for his work, and in 1927 Polish Prince Jan Drucko-Lubecki gave him land
at Teresin near Warsaw. There he founded a new monastery of Niepokalanow, the
City of the Immaculate which was consecrated on 8 December 1927. At its peak
the Knight of the Immaculate had a press run of 750,000 copies a month. A
junior seminary was started on the grounds in 1929. In 1935 the house began
printing a daily Catholic newspaper, The Little Daily with a press run of
137,000 on work days, 225,000 on Sundays and holy days. Not content with his work in Poland,
Maximilian and four brothers left for Japan in 1930. Within a month of their
arrival, penniless and knowing no Japanese, Maximilian was printing a Japanese
version of the Knight; the magazine, Seibo no Kishi grew to a circulation of
65,000 by 1936. In 1931 he founded a monastery in Nagasaki, Japan comparable to
Niepokalanow. It survived the war, including the nuclear bombing, and serves
today as a center of Franciscan work in Japan.
In mid-1932 he left Japan for Malabar, India where he founded a third
Niepokalanow house. However, due to a lack of manpower, it did not
survive. Poor health forced him to
curtail his missionary work and return to Poland in 1936. On 8 December 1938
the monastery started its own radio station. By 1939 the monastery housed a
religious community of nearly 800 men, the largest in the world in its day, and
was completely self-sufficient including medical facilities and a fire brigade
staffed by the religious brothers. Arrested
with several of his brothers on 19 September 1939 following the Nazi invasion
of Poland. Others at the monastery were briefly exiled, but the prisoners were
released on 8 December 1939, and the men returned to their work. Back at
Niepokalanow he continued his priestly ministry, The brothers housed 3,000
Polish refugees, two-thirds of whom were Jewish, and continued their
publication work, including materials considered anti-Nazi. For this work the
presses were shut down, the congregation suppressed, the brothers dispersed,
and Maximilian was imprisoned in Pawiak prison, Warsaw, Poland on 17 February
1941. On 28 May 1941 he was transferred to Auschwitz and branded as prisoner
16670. He was assigned to a special work group staffed by priests and
supervised by especially vicious and abusive guards. His calm dedication to the
faith brought him the worst jobs available, and more beatings than anyone else.
At one point he was beaten, lashed, and left for dead. The prisoners managed to
smuggle him into the camp hospital where he spent his recovery time hearing
confessions. When he returned to the camp, Maximilian ministered to other
prisoners, including conducting Mass and delivering communion using smuggled
bread and wine. In July 1941 there was an escape from the camp. Camp protocol,
designed to make the prisoners guard each other, required that ten men be slaughtered
in retribution for each escaped prisoner. Francis Gajowniczek, a married man
with young children was chosen to die for the escape. Maximilian volunteered to
take his place, and died as he had always wished - in service. 1
1. Taken from the Patron Saints Index at http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintm01.htm
In
March of 1938: “I want you to know, my
Brothers, that a terrible conflict is taking place right now. We must expect the very worst for Poland. We are in the hands of Our Lady. I wish that we will all become Martyrs. Wouldn’t it be nice to seal our love for
Mary with our blood? God’s Will be done!…”
1 and in September 1939
world war II started and Poland suffered greatly.
“We
live in a great time of penance. Let us
profit by it. Suffering is good and
sweet to him who accepts it willingly.
Courage. My children, our mission is coming to an end!…” 2
“No one in the world can change the
truth. All that we can do is to seek
it, find it, and live it!…” 3
“Let us be more and more completely led by Our Lady wherever she wants us to go, so that doing our duty through love, we may save ALL souls!…” 4
References
1.
Eucharistic Crusaders St Maximilian Kolbe Chapter 5 Trials and the
Death Camp
(www.sspx.ca/EucharisticCrusade/2001June/St_Maximiliam_Kolbe_Chapter_5.htm)
2.
ibid
3.
ibid
4.
ibid