The White and Red Crowns of St. Maximilian Kolbe

“Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did.” St. Maximilian Kolbe

St. Maximilian Kolbe is best known for volunteering to die in place of a father in Auschwitz. But there is another story that truly pulled at my heart. I first learned about it during my first consecration to Jesus through Mary two years ago. Since I am in the process of renewing my consecration, and I just finished the second week with St. Maximilian, I was reminded of it.

Raymond Kolbe grew up in a humble and devout family in which prayer and a steady work ethic defined the daily rhythm of their life. One day, he was getting on his mother’s nerves when she shouted, “Raymond, what will become of you?” He was very much struck by the question, and asked the Virgin Mary herself, “Mother, what will become of me?”

He describes what happened next: “The Virgin Mother appeared to me holding in her hands two crowns, one white and one red. She looked at me with love and she asked me if I would like to have them. The white meant that I would remain pure and red that I would be a martyr. I answered yes, I wanted them. Then the Virgin looked at me tenderly and disappeared.”

This vision foreshadowed St. Maximilian’s martyrdom at the hands of the Nazis, but first, he would receive the white crown of purity. Raymond, as Brother Maximilian, professed religious vows, one of which was chastity. But aside from purity of the body, he also had purity of intention. He created the “Militia Immaculata” in 1917 to bring the whole world to Jesus under the leadership of Mary Immaculate. He sacrificed everything for its accomplishment.

In 1941, he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. On the eve of the feast of Mary’s Assumption into heaven, after having volunteered to take the place of a father condemned to starvation, the impatient Nazis, because St. Maximilian would not die, finished him with a lethal injection. Thus, St. Maximilian received his red crown.

St. Maximilian was beatified in 1971 and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1981. Like Jesus, he loved his fellow men to the point of sacrificing his life for them. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13), were the opening words of the papal decree introducing the process of beatification.

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