St. Maximilian Kolbe
Born: January 8, 1894
Died: August 14, 1941
Feast day: August 14
Patron saint of: prisoners, drug addicts, people with eating disorders, and families.
Declared “the Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century” by Pope John Paul II, St. Maximillian Kolbe was a simple man of profound holiness. Born Raymund Kolbe in Poland, he enrolled in Conventual Franciscan minor seminary when he was 13, a year after receiving a vision from the Virgin Mary in which his martyrdom was foreshadowed. He professed his final vows seven years later, in 1914, taking on the name Maximilian Maria.
Throughout his priesthood and ministry, Kolbe promoted a deep veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, taking his devotion with him during his missionary work in China, Japan, and India.
Upon his return to Poland, Kolbe started a radio station, which he maintained until the outbreak of World War II. Refusing to leave the friary, Kolbe peacefully resisted the Nazi occupation in any way that he could, working to shelter Jewish refugees and courageously producing many anti-Nazi publications. In 1941, he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz, where he continued to minister to his fellow prisoners, at great personal cost.
In July of 1941, Kolbe volunteered to take the place of a man who had a wife and children, and who would have otherwise been sentenced to death in a starvation chamber. After two weeks of spiritually accompanying the other prisoners to their eventual deaths, Kolbe himself was murdered by the Nazis on August 14.
The Gospel of John tells us that “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” Kolbe took that to heart: eyewitnesses tell us that his commitment was resolute, and his demeanor one of peace and service. In a world full of hatred, injustice, and trauma, may we take the example of St. Maximilian Kolbe to heart, witnessing to the gospel in both word and deed.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
