St Maximilian Kolbe

     Saint Maximilian Kolbe, was born on January 8th, 1894 and died on August 14th, 1941. He was born in Poland and died in a horrible death camp, called Auschwitz, in his same beloved Poland that because of the war had been changed to Nazi Germany. He had four siblings and two devoted devout parents. He was baptized under the name of Raymund Kolbe.

     His destiny was unveiled one night when he was a child, with our Lady, Mary, visiting him and showing him two crowns. One was white and one was red. She asked him to choose one. One was purity and the other was martyrdom. He chose both. 

     Cruelty and power by Hitler became so prevalent that people were thrown into non-existence in the blink of an eye. The horrible evil spread quickly and by this time Maximilian was a Polish Franciscan friar. Religious indifference was a deadly poison of the day and his mission was to combat it. He founded the "militia of the Immaculata", whose aim was to fight evil with the witness of a good life, consisting of prayer and work and suffering. He started a religious magazine called "Knight of the Immaculata", which under Mary's protection was spread to preach the good news to all of the nations. He established a "City of the Immaculata", which housed 700 of his Franciscan Brothers. He later founded another one in Nagasaki Japan. Both, the militia and the magazine reached a million mark in members and subscribers. His love of God was daily filtered through devotion to our beloved Blessed Mother Mary. 

     He was arrested in 1939, when the Nazi regime was spreading quickly, later being released 3 months later on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Only to be arrested again in 1941 as the Nazi resolution was to liquidate the select ones, the leaders. He was sent to the Nazi death camp in Auschwitz, where a prisoner escaped, then having it be said by the German soldier, that 10 men would die because of this. As the soldier moved along the line, picking this one and then that one, Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek was singled out along with the other nine. Screaming and pleading, the man begged for his life due to his children and wife. Unfazed by his begging, the Nazi soldier proceeded and Maximilian spoke up, asking to take his place. Francis was then kicked out of the line and Maximilian replaced him. To the "block of death", they were sent and ordered to strip naked and die slowly from starvation. What humility. What torture. What sacrifice. All in darkness. There, the prisoners did not scream. They sang. Only four were left alive by the eve of the Assumption. The jailer, wanting to finish them off, came in with a needle filled with "carbolic acid". After they died they burned their bodies. 

     St Maximilian Kolbe, is another blessed example of heroic and merciful love of God and Mary. A limitless, passionate desire to convert the whole world to God. Let us turn to all the great Martyrs and Saints in Heaven today and give special honor to this great Saint Maximilian, on his feast day.