Maximilian Kolbe, whom the Catholic Church celebrates today as a saint, is well-known for his willingness to take the place of another man in a death camp during World War II. Maximilian, a Franciscan friar, stepped forward to save the life of a married man with children and consequently died of starvation and – in the end – a lethal injection of poison. This ultimate sacrifice for the good of another is, of course, worthy of sainthood but the entirety of this saint’s life is worthy and prepared him with the courage needed to give his life in martyrdom.
Here are a few of the facts about this saint who was dedicated to God and Mary Immaculate throughout his life. In 1927 he founded and led a monastery that grew to house 700 men – the largest monastery in the world. He supervised the publication of religious magazines, including The Knight of the Immaculata, that had a press run of 750,000 copies a month, part of an endeavor that ran to about 60 million copies annually. In addition to his devotion to Mary Immaculate, he has become known as the patron of families, those recovering from drug addiction, prisoners, amateur radio operators, journalists, political prisoners and the pro-life movement. He died at the age of 47 years.
It seems as if we, like Noah, will soon have to begin building an ark to survive the rain that seems destined to go on forever taking lives, swallowing up cars and filling homes with muddy destruction. Would that we could gather it up and send it West to smother some of the wildfires that are devastating so many homes and lives on the other side of our country. Such environmental distress and human loss is difficult to take in as pictures on the news bring it all to the fore each evening.
Often when speaking of a very good person, someone will say, “S/he’s a saint!” but when we’re talking about saints in a specific way, we generally look to people who lived in the early days of Christianity or the Middle Ages. Almost everyone knows about St. Francis of Assisi, St. Benedict and (finally!) St. Mary Magdalene, as well as mystics Sts. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila. Lately, we Catholics in the United States have been gratified with the canonization (official recognition) of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American saint, and Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint. Now there are also “regular people” who have lived a good and holy life who are coming to the notice of people in high places or those whose diligence pleads their case successfully with the Vatican to have them recognized in this special way. One such heroic holy person is Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar who volunteered to take the place of a Jewish man in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. A prisoner had escaped and, in retribution, the commandant announced that ten men would die. Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek was married with a family and lived to tell the tale of the holy man who took his place in the group of ten executed on this day in 1941. Fr. Kolbe was canonized in 1982.
The Sophia Center for Spirituality 