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August 14: Feast Day of St. Maximilian Kolbe
St. Maximilian Kolbe
St. Maximilian Kolbe's death was tragic and yet also a perfect portrait of the man's complete love and devotion to God. Imprisoned in the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, Maximilian offered his life for that of another prisoner.
Born in 1894 into modest circumstances in
Zdunska Wola, a town in central Poland (then under partition), Maximilian whose baptismal name was Rajmund, had four brothers. His parents performed a variety of jobs to support the family. These included basket weaving, midwifery, and shopkeeping.
Lviv
In 1907, Rajmund and his brother Francis traveled to Lviv (currently in the Ukraine) and entered the junior seminary of the Conventual Franciscan Friars. Four years later, in Rome, Rajmund made his final vows as a Conventual Franciscan and took on the religious name Maximilian Maria. He had two doctorates to his name, one in philosophy from the
Pontifical Gregorian University and the other in theology from the
Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure by the age of 25.
Around this time, he also organized the Militia Immaculata in reaction to protests against Popes St. Pius X and Benedict XV. The purpose of the Militia Immaculata was to convert sinners and anti-Catholics with the intervention of the Virgin Mary.
Nagasaki
With the end of World War I, Poland regained her independence. Maximilian returned to his native country and settled at a friary in Niepokalanow, just outside of Warsaw. There he founded a radio station and a number of publications. Maximilian also traveled on several missions to Japan. During one of these missions, he opened a friary in Nagasaki. The friary survived the atomic bomb blast on the city in 1945 and continues to play an important role for Japan's Catholic minority.
Niepokalanow
During World War II, Maximilian opened the Niepokalanow friary to refugees. Amongst them were 2000 Jews. He also operated an underground radio station through which he championed freedom and justice. His arrest by the Gestapo and eventual incarceration in Auschwitz happened in 1941. That same year, the German Schutzstaffel (SS) officers who ran Auschwitz, picked 10 inmates for starvation as punishment for the disappearance of another prisoner. Maximilian volunteered to take the place of
Franciszek Gajowniczek as one of the inmates who was to starve. Along with three other inmates, he survived for three weeks until the SS poisoned him with an injection of carbolic acid.
His Holiness Pope John Paul II canonized Maximilian Kolbe in 1982. Franciszek Gajowniczek was present at the ceremony. He thanked Maximilian for giving him the gift of life.
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