Today the Church celebrates Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, a Conventual Franciscan friar, priest and martyr who gave his life for another prisoner at Auschwitz.
Born in Poland in 1894, Maximilian entered the Conventual Franciscans as a young man. Gifted academically and fascinated by science, he earned doctorates in philosophy and theology before being ordained a priest in 1918.
With a profound devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he founded the Militia of the Immaculata, seeking to bring people closer to Christ through prayer, witness and evangelisation. He also established the influential Knight of the Immaculata magazine and founded Niepokalanów, the “City of the Immaculata”, which became home to hundreds of Franciscan friars. His missionary work later took him to Japan, where he founded another community near Nagasaki.
Following the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, Kolbe and his friars sheltered refugees, including Jews. He was arrested by the Gestapo in February 1941 and eventually sent to Auschwitz, where he became prisoner number 16670.
Later that year, following the escape of a prisoner, ten men were selected to die by starvation as punishment. When one of those chosen, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out for his wife and children, Fr Kolbe stepped forward and offered to take his place.
His offer was accepted.
Kolbe and the other prisoners were confined without food or water. Witnesses recalled that he led the condemned men in prayer and hymns. After around two weeks, Kolbe remained alive and was killed by an injection of carbolic acid on 14 August 1941, the eve of the Solemnity of the Assumption.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe was canonised by Pope Saint John Paul II in 1982, who proclaimed him a “martyr of charity”.
His extraordinary sacrifice remains a powerful witness to the words of Christ: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
🙏 Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, pray for us.
