What is the Story of Saint Maximilian Kolbe?

Saint Maximilian Kolbe was born on January 8, 1894. He was martyred 47 years later at the largest and deadliest concentration camp of the Nazi Regime. In between, he lived through the suppression of his Polish heritage under the Russian Empire, tuberculosis outbreaks that took the lives of two of his brothers, and both World Wars. It is fitting that Saint John Paul II, at Maximilian’s canonization in 1982, called him “the patron of our difficult century”. It was in the midst of these cultural hardships that Kolbe carved out his path to sainthood, one obedient act at a time.

The faith and devotion of his German mother and his father’s strong desire for Polish reunification greatly shaped how Maximilian (born Raymund Kolbe) approached the world and his role in it. From childhood, he turned to Our Lady of Czestochowa, Patroness of Poland, entrusting both personal and political goals to her. When he was 9 years old, he had a vision of the Blessed Mother. In it, she put before him two crowns: a white one representing purity, and a red one representing martyrdom, and asked him if he would accept either crown. He chose both.

In 1907, the two surviving Kolbe brothers, Raymund (then 13) and Francis, entered the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. Three years later, Raymund entered the Franciscan novitiate and took the name Maximilian. His studies brought him to Rome, and he was there earning his Doctor of Philosophy when World War I broke out in Europe in 1914 - the same year he took his final vows as a Franciscan. Back home, his father joined the Polish Legions in an effort to restore Poland’s freedom from Russian rule but was captured and hanged as a traitor by the Russian Imperial Army.

Maximilian Kolbe would go on to establish a spiritual army through his founding of the Militia Immaculatae in 1917. This was one of his many lasting legacies, starting with six other friars and growing to a present-day community of over 3 million worldwide members. The Militia Immaculatae prayed for sinners and those who were standing against the church, especially the Freemasons. St. Maximilian kept his devotion to Mary at the forefront of his actionable faith and counseled all to “Receive Jesus in Holy Communion and accept all things from His hands, with the humble disposition that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary had at the time of the Annunciation: ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word’ (Luke 1:38).” -St. Maximilian Kolbe

By 1919 the War had ended, and Maximilian Kolbe had obtained Doctorates in both Philosophy and Theology, had been ordained into the priesthood, and had returned to his native Poland to teach at the Seminary in Kraków. It was there that he met Catholics from Japan who inspired his future travels to Asia as a missionary, where he established missions and another lasting legacy - the Seibo no Kishi Monastery in Nagasaki, Japan. Built in 1931, the monastery site nestled into a mountain in the Honouchi district was one of the few places in Nagasaki to survive the atomic bomb in 1945, allowing the monks to serve those impacted by the devastation in surrounding areas. It still houses Franciscan friars today.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe also had a profound impact on Catholic mass media, pioneering widespread publications, founding a publishing center, and operating short-wave radio to reach the masses beyond his physical presence. Now the patron saint of journalists and short-wave radio operators (among other things), he had the foresight to utilize the technology of the time for the conversion of souls.

In 1939, just a year after Maximilian began his short-wave radio presence, World War II began. The German occupation did not seem to hinder his devotion to his calling, despite the desperate attempts to deconstruct religion and national identity under the Nazi regime. Saint Maximilian was one of the few to remain at his monastery, which he helped to convert into a temporary hospital of sorts as well as a safe place for some 3,000 Polish refugees - over half of whom were Jewish.  He also continued his work at the printing press, releasing the Nazi-critical pieces that would play a role in his eventual arrest. These treacherous sacrifices alone would have been enough to earn him a place of honor in our history books, but his greatest sacrifice had not yet been achieved.

When the Nazi Gestapo finally shut down the monastery and arrested Maximilian Kolbe, it was February 17 of 1941. He was taken as a prisoner and eventually deported to Auschwitz on May 28th of the same year. As prisoner number 16670, Kolbe endured the unimaginable conditions of brutality at the work camp, yet he shared spiritual counsel and comfort with fellow prisoners and continued the Franciscan way of sharing his own meager rations with those suffering around him.

The Blessed Mother had offered him two crowns in his vision: one of purity and one of martyrdom. His commitment to the crown of purity had required daily adherence, but he had not yet exercised the crown of martyrdom. Surrounded by death at Auschwitz, he must have wondered if his martyrdom was already set in motion - an eventual demise after imprisonment for living out his faith. But he was not called to go so quietly.

In late July of 1941, during a check of the quarters, it was noted that a prisoner had gone missing. At the time, Auschwitz was practicing collective punishment, wherein many would suffer if one was disobedient or attempted escape. In this case, it was decided that ten prisoners would be put to death by starvation for the escape attempt. By random selection, Maximilian was passed over. But a Polish Catholic by the name of Franciszek Gajowniczek was pulled from the group and assigned to “Hunger Zelle”, or the Starvation Cell, where he, along with nine others, would be denied food or water until they eventually and painfully perished. Gajowniczek’s desperate cries for his family and children, as he knew he was about to forfeit any protection he still may be able to provide them, compelled Saint Maximilian to beg the officers to allow him to take his place in the Starvation Cell.

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)

The guards allowed the exchange, and Fr. Maximilian Kolbe left the outside world for the last time to enter the chamber where he would slowly greet death. For nearly two weeks, he and the nine other prisoners sentenced to the same fate suffered unimaginably, as they slowly starved to death. Even here, despair did not descend quickly, as praises to God and Rosary prayers could be heard in the cell. Frequent checks ensured that the SS men were removing the deceased as they passed away, but when they made their expected final checks after two weeks, they found Fr. Kolbe unconscious but still alive in the cell. To end the punishment, or perhaps to clear the cell, they issued a lethal injection on August 14th, 1941, that ultimately ended the life of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, the crown of martyrdom finally won.

His day of death and seeming defeat is now a feast day celebrated around the world. As the patron said of journalists, amateur radio operators, prisoners, families, the Pro-Life movement, drug addicts, and people with eating disorders, Saint Maximilian Kolbe will forever be known for his final sacrifice of love as a “martyr of charity”, but should never be forgotten for the pure way he served Christ - with a willingness to physically go where the Gospel was needed, or to send it to the ends of the earth through written words and radio waves. He lived for the Christ who reigned in heaven and died for the Christ who dwelled in his neighbor.

"Let us remember that love lives through sacrifice and is nourished by giving...Without sacrifice, there is no love.” -Saint Maximilian Kolbe