Aug-14 Feast of St Maximillian Kolbe

 August 14: Feast of the martyr St Maximillian Kolbe

Today August 14th, is the feast of Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe - Polish Franciscan priest who was martyred at Auschwitz 80 years ago on August 14, 1941. He is the patron saint of  journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement, the chemically addicted and those with eating disorders.

He recounts an early childhood vision of the Virgin Mary. This vision was significant because he chose both the path of sanctity and also to follow the path of a martyr. “That night, I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me, a Child of Faith. 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.” 

Born Raymund Kolbe, on 8 January 1894, he was given the religious name Maximillian when he was admitted as an initiate at the Conventual Franciscan seminary in Lvív--then Poland, now Ukraine- in 1910.

Towards the end of his studies, Kolbe suffered his first bout of tuberculosis and he became quite ill, often coughing up blood; the illness disrupted his studies. Throughout the rest of his life, he experienced poor health, but never complained, seeing his illness as an opportunity to ‘suffer for Mary’. Kolbe had a strong devotion to the Virgin Mary and on October 16, 1917, while still a student-friar in Rome, Maximilian founded the Militia Immaculatae (MI) Catholic evangelisation movement. Its purpose was to bring about the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by encouraging each and every soul to make a total consecration of themselves to the Immaculate Virgin Mary. He felt a strong motivation to ‘fight for Mary’ against enemies of the church. Kolbe helped the Immaculata Friars to publish high pamphlets, books and a newspaper – "Rycerz Niepokalanej" (Knight of the Immaculate, known today simply as Immaculata), which grew to have a circulation of over 1 million and was influential amongst Polish Catholics. Kolbe even gained a radio licence and publicly broadcast his views on religion, successfully using the latest technologies like printing, radio, movies and even TV to spread his message.

Poland was overrun by the Nazi forces in 1939. Kolbe’s monastery at Niepokalanów helped to hide, feed and clothe 3,000 Polish refugees, (of which approximately 1,500 were Jews) who sought refuge. In 1941, his newspaper “The Knight of the Immaculate” offered strong criticism of the Nazis. On 17 February 1941, he was arrested by the Gestapo for hiding Jewish people. After a brief internment in a notorious Polish prison, he was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp and branded prisoner #16670. Despite the awful conditions of Auschwitz, people report that Kolbe retained a deep faith, equanimity and dignity in the face of appalling treatment. He continued his priestly ministry, including hearing confessions and holding mass with smuggled bread, for which he was subjected to beatings by the guards.

In July 1941, three prisoners appeared to have escaped from the camp; as a result, the Deputy Commander of Auschwitz ordered 10 men to be chosen to be starved to death in an underground bunker as a form of collective punishment. When one of the selected men, Sergeant Franciszek Gajowniczek, heard he was selected, he cried out “My wife! My children!” At this point, Kolbe volunteered to take his place. The Nazi commander replied, “What does this Polish pig want? Father Kolbe pointed with his hand to the condemned Franciszek Gajowniczek and repeated: “I am a Catholic priest from Poland; I would like to take his place because he has a wife and children.”

Rather surprised, the commander accepted Kolbe in place of Gajowniczek. Gajowniczek later said: “I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me – a stranger. Is this some dream? I was put back into my place without having had time to say anything to Maximilian Kolbe. I was saved. And I owe to him the fact that I could tell you all this. The news quickly spread all round the camp. It was the first and the last time that such an incident happened in the whole history of Auschwitz.” Franciszek Gajowniczek would miraculously survive Auschwitz, and would later be present at Kolbe’s beatification and canonisation ceremonies.

The ten condemned men were led away to the underground bunker where they were to be starved to death. Bruno Borgowiec, a Polish prisoner who was charged with serving the prisoner later gave a report of what he saw: “The ten condemned to death went through terrible days. From the underground cell in which they were shut up there continually arose the echo of prayers and canticles. The man in charge of emptying the buckets of urine found them always empty. Thirst drove the prisoners to drink the contents. Since they had grown very weak, prayers were now only whispered. At every inspection, when almost all the others were now lying on the floor, Father Kolbe was seen kneeling or standing in the centre as he looked cheerfully in the face of the SS men.

Father Kolbe never asked for anything and did not complain, rather he encouraged the others, saying that the fugitive might be found and then they would all be freed. One of the SS guards remarked: this priest is really a great man. We have never seen anyone like him…”

After two weeks, all but four prisoners including Kolbe had died due to dehydration and starvation. Because the guards wanted the cell emptied, the remaining prisoners and Kolbe were executed with a lethal injection on August 14th. Those present say he calmly accepted death, lifting up his arm. His remains were cremated on August 15, the same day as the Assumption of Mary feast day.

Father Kolbe’s death was not a sudden, last-minute act of heroism. His whole life had been a preparation. His holiness was a limitless, passionate desire to convert the whole world to God. And his beloved Immaculata was his inspiration. Kolbe was a ground-breaking theologian. His insights on the Immaculate Conception anticipated the Marian theology of the Second Vatican Council and further developed the Church’s understanding of Mary’s role in God’s Plan of salvation. Kolbe was beatified by Pope Paul VI as Confessor of the Faith on October 17, 1971. He was canonised as a martyr by Pope John Paul II (who himself lived through the German occupation of Poland) on October 10, 1982.

Pope John Paul II decided that Kolbe should be recognised as a martyr because the systematic hatred of the Nazi regime was inherently an act of hatred against religious faith, meaning Kolbe’s death equated to martyrdom. At his canonisation, in 1982 Pope John Paul II said: “Maximilian did not die but gave his life … for his brother.”