Saint Maximilian Kolbe

He was born Raymond Kolbe in Zdunska Wola, Poland on 8 January 1894.  In 1907, he entered the preparatory seminary for the Conventual Franciscans in Lwow.  He received the Franscican habit in September 1910 and took the name ‘Maximilian.’  He professed simple vows a year later and solemn vows in November 1914.  In October 1915, he earned a Doctorate in Philosophy while studying in Rome.  Two years later, he contracted tuberculosis.  On 16 October 1917, Friar Maximilian established the Militia Immaculata to spread devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  On 28 April 1918, he was ordained as a priest.  During the 1920s, Father Maximilian established the Knights of the Immaculata magazine and a minor seminary and community named “The City of the Immaculata.”  In the 1930s, Father Maximilian performed ministry and evangelization in Poland, Japan and India.   

Beginning in the fall of 1939, Friar Maximilian and the Polish people encountered evil in a most horrific way.  In September 1939, Nazi German and Soviet forces invaded and conquered Poland.  Father Maximilian and a group of brothers were arrested by the Nazis that month but released in December.  In February 1941, Father Maximilian was arrested by the German Gestapo;  in May, he was transferred to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.  At the end of July, the Camp Commandant ordered ten prisoners to be starved to death in retaliation for another prisoner’s escape.  Father Maximilian offered to take the place of Francis Gajowniczek, who had a family.  When he failed to succumb to starvation, the Nazis killed him with a lethal injection of carbolic acid on 14 August 1941.  His body was cremated.  Pope Saint John Paul II canonized him on 10 October 1982.  Of St. Maximilian’s martyrdom, Pope Saint John Paul II said during his Homily, “This was the victory achieved over the whole system of contempt and hatred towards man and what is divine in man, a victory like that won by our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary.”

"You are my friends if you do what I command you" (Jn 15:14)