Saint of the Month: St MAXIMILIAN KOLBE
The remarkable martyr to Nazis
He was a Franciscan, writer, publisher, monastery founder, missionary, and martyr of charity. The life of St Maximilian Kolbe is reviewed by Günther Simmermacher.
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HE GREAT POLISH SAINT Maximilian Kolbe is mostly remembered for his martyrdom to the inhumanity of Nazism at Auschwitz concentration camp. Indeed, the heroism of that martyrdom — Fr Kolbe volunteered to give his life so that a family father could live — is the defining culmination of his most remarkable life. Maximilian was born as Rajmund Kolbe on January 8, 1894 at Zdunska Wola near Lodz in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. He was the second son of a poor weaver and a midwife. His parents, Juliusz (an ethnic German, hence the surname) and Maria, were devout Catholics with a particular devotion to Our Lady, which they passed on to their children. As a 12-year-old the future saint had a Marian vision. Having been reprimanded for naughty behaviour that day, he prayed to Our Lady. Kolbe later recalled the event: “That night I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns: one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.”
St Maximilian at a glance
Name at birth: Rajmund Kolbe Born: January 8, 1894, in Zduńska Wola, Russian Empire (now Poland) Died: August 14, 1941 at Auschwitz-Birkenau, German-occupied Poland Beatified: 1971 Canonised: 1982 Feast: August 14 Patronages: Families, drug addiction recovery, prisoners, political prisoners, journalists, amateur radio operators, pro-life movement
Military or Franciscans?
Young Rajmund and his older brother Franciszek were educated at a Franciscan seminary school, but Rajmund’s interest initially resided in the military, and his attendant Polish patriotism and mind for strategy would probably have served him well. Instead he chose the priesthood as a Franciscan friar — a role, he realised early, in which his strategic mind could be applied to the things of God instead of those of death. Rajmund entered the Franciscan order as a 16-year-old in September 1910. With the habit he also received a new name: Maximilian (or Maksymilian in the Polish spelling), to which he later added Maria, in tribute to Our Lady. From 1912-15 he studied philosophy at the Gregorian College in Rome, and from 1915-19 theology at the Collegio Serafico, as the Pontifical University of St Bonaventure is commonly known. Having made his final vows in 1914, he was ordained to the priesthood in Rome on April 28, 1918. He returned to his beloved Poland, now an independent state, the following year. By then, he had lost his father, who was hanged by the Russians as a fighter for Poland’s independence. While studying in Rome, Maximilian had witnessed virulently anti-
The faces of St Maximilian Kolbe: As a young man, a priest, a missionary in Japan, and his last photo before his arrest by the Gestapo.
Catholic protests by the Freemasons, and decided to act upon these by organising the Militia Immaculata (Army of the Immaculate One). The purpose of the movement was to work for the conversion of the enemies of the Church, especially the Freemasons, through Mary’s intercession. He continued his Marian work in Poland, where he initially lectured at the seminary of Krakow.
Magazine founder
As a newly-independent state, Poland was still finding its direction. Fr Kolbe was strongly anti-communist and, obviously, devoted to the Catholic apostolate. In January 1922 he began to offer some direction by founding a monthly religious magazine titled Rycerz Niepokalanej (Knight of the Immaculata), which he based on the French devotional publication Le Messager du Coeur de Jesus. At its peak in the early 1930s, it had a circulation of 750 000. To go with that project, he set up a religious publishing press in Grodno (now in Belarus) which he ran until 1926. In 1927 Fr Kolbe turned his sights to bigger things: he founded a Franciscan monastery at a site west of Warsaw which was provided by Prince Jan Drucko-Lubecki. He first erected a Marian statue, and then led the building of the monastery which he named Niepokalanów — meaning “City of the Immaculate”. The monastery went on to become a major religious publishing centre, bringing out an influential daily newspaper (of a rather right-wing direction), apart from the Rycerz Niepokalanej and other media. Niepokalanów also became the site of a junior seminary to accommodate a flood of vocations from across Poland. By 1938 it was one of the biggest Franciscan friaries in the world, with The Southern Cross
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