Maximilian Kolbe
Encyclopedia : M : MA : MAX : Maximilian Kolbe
| Saint Maximilian Kolbe | |
|---|---|
| Martyr | |
| Born | 8 January 1894, Zduńska Wola, Poland |
| Died | 14 August 1941, Auschwitz concentration camp, Poland |
| Venerated in | Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 17 October 1971 |
| Canonized | 10 October 1982 |
| Major shrine | Basilica of the Immaculate Mediatrix of Grace, Niepokalanów, Poland |
| Feast | 14 August |
| Attributes | Either a Franciscan friar's habit or a Nazi concentration camp prisoner's uniform, a rosary or a medallion with Virgin Mary in his hand |
| Patronage | 20th century, power workers, journalists, political prisoners, drug addicts |
| Sample Prayer O Lord Jesus Christ, who said, "greater love than this no man has that a man lay down his life for his friends," through the intercession of Saint Maximilian Kolbe whose life illustrated such love, we beseech you to grant us our petitions... | |
Maximilian Kolbe (January 8, 1894–August 14, 1941), also known as Maksymilian or Massimiliano Maria Kolbe and "Apostle of Consecration to Mary," born as Rajmund Kolbe, was a Polish Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the German/Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in Poland.
He was canonized by the Catholic Church as Saint Maximilian Kolbe on October 10, 1982 by Pope John Paul II, and declared a martyr of charity. He is the patron saint of drug addicts, families, imprisoned people, journalists, prisoners, the pro-life movement, and amateur radio.
Biography
Kolbe was born, to a family of German origin, in 1894 in Zduńska Wola, at that time part of Russia, as the second son of Juliusz Kolbe and Marianna Kolbe (née Dąbrowska). His parents moved to Pabianice, where they worked first as weavers, then ran a bookstore. Later, in 1914, his father joined Józef Piłsudski's Polish Legions and was captured and executed by the Russians for fighting for the independence of a partitioned Poland.
In 1907, Kolbe and his elder brother Franciszek decided to join the Franciscan order. They illegally crossed the border between Russia and Austria-Hungary and joined the Franciscan junior seminary in Lwów. In 1910, Kolbe was allowed to enter the novitiate. He professed his first vows in 1911, adopting the name Maxsimilian, and the final vows in 1914, in Rome, adopting the names Maxsimilian Maria, to show his veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In 1912, he was sent to Kraków, and, in the same year, to Rome, where he studied philosophy, theology, mathematics, and physics. He earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1915 at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and the doctorate in theology in 1919 at the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure. During his time as a student, he witnessed vehement demonstrations against Popes St. Pius X and Benedict XV by the Freemasons in Rome and was inspired to organize the Militia Immaculata, or Army of Mary, to work for conversion of sinners and the enemies of the Catholic Church through the intercession of the Virgin Mary. In 1918, he was ordained a priest. In the conservative publications of the Militia Immaculatae, he particularly condemned Freemasonry, Communism, Zionism, Capitalism and Imperialism.
In 1919, he returned to the newly independent Poland, where he was very active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, founding and supervising the monastery of Niepokalanów near Warsaw, a seminary, a radio station, and several other organizations and publications. Between 1930 and 1936, he took a series of missions to Japan, where he founded a monastery at the outskirts of Nagasaki, a Japanese paper, and a seminary. The monastery he founded is currently the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Japan.
Auschwitz
During the Second World War, in the Niepokalanów friary, Kolbe provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews. He was also active as a radio amateur, with Polish call letters SP3RN, vilifying Nazi activities by reporting the facts. On February 17, 1941, he was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and, on May 25, was transferred to Auschwitz I as prisoner #16670.
In July 1941, a man from Kolbe's bunker had vanished, prompting Karl Fritzsch, the Lagerführer, to pick 10 men from the same bunker to be starved to death in the notorious torture block, Block 11, in order to deter further escape attempts. (The man who had disappeared was later found drowned in the camp latrine.) One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family, and Kolbe volunteered to take his place.
After two weeks of starvation, only four of the ten men were still alive, including Kolbe. The cells were needed, and Kolbe and the other three were executed with an injection of carbolic acid in the heart.
He was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 10 October 1982, in the presence of Gajowniczek. The canonization was controversial because some of Kolbe's writings were allegedly anti-Semitic (Rees 2005), [link] although this has been disputed. [link]
Kolbe is one of ten 20th-century martyrs from across the world who are depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey, London.
See also
References
- [Maximilian Kolbe] Catholic-forum.com
- [Kolbe], Mt Maria College
- Rees, Laurence. Auschwitz: A New History, Public Affairs, 2005. ISBN 1586483579
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