Memorial of Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe, Priest and Martyr
MAN
On January 8, 1894 in Zduńska Wola near Łódź,Poland, the second son of Juliusz Kolbe and Marianna née Dąbrowska was born. As was the custom of the time, he was baptized on the same day in the parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At hisbaptism he was given the name Raymond. He was one of three siblings, he had two brothers, the elder Franciszek and the younger Józef. His parents, like most of the families in the Łódź district, worked in weaving. Due to difficult financial conditions, they were forced to change their place of residence several times. First, they moved to Łódź, then to Pabianice, where Raymond's father worked in a factory, and his mother ran a shop and earned extra money as a midwife. A special feature of Raymond's spirituality in his early years was the devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The most famous event in the life of little Raymond was the famous vision of the two crowns, which was told by his mother. As a little boy, Raymond liked to play around, and sometimes his behavior upset his mother. One day, when Raymond was about 12 years old, his mother reproaching him exclaimed: "Mundek, Mundek, what will become of you?" These words touched the boy very deeply. Tearful, he fled to a nearby church, where he prayed for a long time before the image of the Mother of God, repeating his mother's words: "What will I grow out to be?". At one point, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him, holding two crowns in her hands: white (meaning purity) and red (meaning martyrdom). She asked Raymond if he wanted them? Mundek accepted both without hesitation. It was in the parish church in Pabianice. From then on, everything in his life changed.
FRANCISCAN
In 1907, the Franciscans from Lviv conducted parish missions in Pabianice. Two Kolbe brothers participated in them: Franciszek and Rajmund. When the retreat leader, Fr. Peregrin Haczela, OFMConv, during one of the lessons announced that the Franciscans were admitting young boys to the gymnasium, both brothers decided to enroll in this school. Three years later, their third brother, Józef, joined them. One day, praying in the Franciscan church in front of the image of Our Lady Immaculate, Maximilian promised that he would fight for Mary until the end of his life, although at that moment he imagined this fight in an armed manner.
The time of stay of the Kolbe brothers in Lviv coincided with the period of the struggle for independence by Poland, they faced a difficult choice: to fight for the independence of their homeland with the arms in hand, or to devote themselves to God's service in the Franciscan order. When Raymond and Franciszek decided to join military legions, his mother unexpectedly came to visit them. She revealed to her sons that she with their father had decided to dedicate themselves to God's exclusive service. Raymond read the sign of God's will in this episode. He decided to stay in the convent. Soon he asked his superiors to be admitted to the novitiate, in which he was named Maximillian. It was 1910. A year later, he made temporary vows.
After graduating from gymnasium in 1912, his superiors sent him to further studies in Kraków. In the same year, however, in October, he and six confreres were sent to Rome, where he attended the papal Gregorian University. He completed his studies in philosophy (1912-1915) and theology (1915-1919) with two doctorates. During his studies, his outstanding mathematical and physical abilities were also revealed, which resulted in numerous projects and plans reaching far into the future. On November 1, 1914, Kolbe made a solemn profession, during which he also took the name Maria in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary. On April 28, 1918, Father Kolbe was ordained a priest.
MISSIONARY
During his studies in Rome, in February 1917, Fr. Maximilian witnessed anti-Church actions by Italian Freemasonry. He understood that the opponents of the Church must feel very strong to allow themselves to manifest openly in the capital of Christianity. This event inspired Maximilian to create a pious society of Mary Immaculate, which would gather in its ranks all the people to whom the cause of the kingdom of God on earth was dear. In consultation with his superiors and after consulting the confessor, he founded the Knighthood of the Immaculate ( Militia Immaculate) with six confreres.
In 1919, Fr. Maximillian returned to a free Poland. His superiors appointed him a lecturer of church history at the Krakow Franciscan seminary. From Rome, he brought to the country his ideas of gaining the world for Christ through the Immaculate. From the very beginning, he began to recruit volunteers to the new Militia Immaculate association, first from among the religious, and when he obtained the permission of Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha, also lay people. In January 1922, he began to publish in Krakow the magazine "Knight of the Immaculate" - a press organ of the Militia Immaculate. Soon the superiors decided to move the editorial office to Grodno, where Father Maximillian established a printing house. In 1927, the“Knight of the Immaculate" had a circulation of 70,000 copies, and the number of members of the Militia Immaculate increased to 126,000.
In 1927, thanks to a donation from Duke Drucki Lubecki, Father Maximillian founded a monastery in Teresin near Warsaw, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, which he called Niepokalanów - City of the Immaculate. When World War II broke out, the monastery in Niepokalanów had 13 fathers, 18 novice clerics, 527 professed brothers, 82 candidates for brothers and 122 boys in a small seminary and was then the largest monastery in the world.
In 1930, unexpectedly for all, Father Kolbe left Niepokalanów and, accompanied by four confreres, went on missions to Japan. In Nagasaki he founded the Japanese Niepokalanów (Mugensai no sono), where he opened his novitiate in 1931 and a small seminary in 1936. In the same year, "The Knight of the Immaculate" in Japanese (Seibono Kischi) had a circulation of 65,000 copies. Maximillian intended to open similar centers of Marian devotion all over the world. In 1936, Fr. Maximillian returned to the country for the provincial chapter, at which he was re-elected superior of Niepokalanów.
The Monastery of the Immaculate was experiencing its success. The press in Niepokalanów achieved unimaginable amounts of magazines, and Kolbe used more and more new technology in the service of evangelization. From 1938, Niepokalanów had its own radio station, and Fr. Maximillian was thinking of establishing a television and an airport in Niepokalanów. It was not without difficulties, as the liberal press did everything to ridicule and discredit Father Kolbe's work. The work of the Immaculate, however, overcame all obstacles. This lasted until the outbreak of World War II.
MARTYR
Shortly after the outbreak of the war, on September 19, 1939, the Germans began the liquidation of Niepokalanów. Along with Fr Maximillian, a few more brothers were arrested and deported to the Lamsdorf temporary camp (between September 24 and November 8), from where they were taken to Ostrzeszów (November 9 to December 8, 1939). On the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary - December 8 – they were released from camp. Father Kolbe immediately returned to Niepokalanów. He reorganized the monastery and made it a refugee camp. Soon more than 3,000 people from the Poznań region took refuge there, including about 1,500 Jews, found refuge there. Father Kolbe organized constant adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, opened a watch and bicycle repair shop, built a forge and a tinsmith, organized a tailor's shop and a sanitary department.
Arrested again on February 17, 1941 by the Gestapo, he was imprisoned in the Pawiak, and from there on May 28, he was transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was given the number 16 670. In the camp, Father Kolbe did not forget that he was a priest and a monk. He strengthened his fellow prisoners with his attitude, encouraged them, gave confessions, preached and secretly celebrated Holy Masses. At the end of July 1941, one of the prisoners escaped from block 14A. In retaliation for the escape, ten prisoners from this block were sentenced to death in the starvation bunker. Among those chosen for cruel death was Franciszek Gajowniczek (No. 5659), who begged for mercy, he did not want to die, because he had a wife and children. Then an amazing thing happened.
Father Kolbe stepped out of the ranks volunteered to die for a fellow prisoner. When asked by Commander Fritsch - who is he? He replied that he is a Catholic priest. The camp director agreed to the exchange. Father Maximillian, along with 9 companions, went to block no. 13 to death by starvation. The bunker that was a place of curses and despair has become a temple of God's glory. After two weeks of starvation, Father Maximillian was killed with an injection of phenol. The Blessed Virgin Mary took her Knight to Heaven on August 14, 1941, on the eve of the Solemnity of the Assumption.
BLESSED AND SAINT
On October 17, 1971, Pope Paul VI, in the presence of tens of thousands of believers from all over the world and over 3,000 pilgrims from Poland, solemnly beatified Father Maximilian as a Confessor. On October 10, 1982, the Holy Father John Paul II canonized Father Kolbe as a Martyr. In this way, the vision of two crowns that little Raymond experienced in the Pabianice church came true. He ended his 47-year life as a confessor and martyr for the faith.
Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe at Christ the King Church in Hollywood
In the Chapel of Holy Mother of Mercy, we have the Image of Saint Maximilian Kolbe.
Please stop by, to pray at the Chapel of Jesus of Divine Mercy and the chapel of Holy Mother of Mercy.
TOTALLY YOURS
(Prayer composed by St. Maximilian Kolbe and recited by Saint John Paul II)
Immaculate Conception, Mary, my Mother.Live in me. Act in me. Speak in and through me.Think your thoughts in my mind. Love, through my heart.Give me your dispositions and feelings. Teach, lead and guide me to Jesus.Correct, enlighten and expand my thoughts and behavior.Possess my soul. Take over my entire personality and life.Replace it with yourself.Incline me to constant adoration and thanksgiving.Pray in me and through me.Let me live in you and keep me in this union always.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george