Saint Maximillian Kolbe

Feast Day: August 14

  • Raymund Kolbe was born on January 8, 1894 in Zdunska Wola in the Kingdom of Poland, part of the Russian Empire. His father was an ethnic German and his mother Polish.
  • When he was 12, he had a vision of the Blessed Virgin who showed him two crowns, one was white and the other red. The Virgin asked Raymund which crown he would choose. The white crown meant he would preserve his purity while the red one was the path to martyrdom. Raymund chose both crowns!
  • In 1910, he was given the religious name Maximillian and was admitted as a novitiate and professed his first vows the following year. He took his final vows as a monk in 1914.
  • Kolbe returned to the newly independent Poland in 1919 and was ordained as a priest.
  • Kolbe’s love and devotion to Mary compelled him to organize the Militia Immaculata (Army of the Immaculate One) after witnessing protests in Rome by the Freemasons against the Vatican.
  • During his time, World War II was breaking out. When his town was captured, Kolbe was imprisoned but was released three months later. Kolbe continued his work, providing shelter for refugees and even hiding an estimated 2,000 Jews from German persecution.
  • On February 17, 1941, he was arrested by the German Gestapo and was branded prisoner #16670.
  • In July 1941, three prisoners appeared to have escaped from the concentration camp. As a stern warning, the commander of Auschwitz ordered 10 men to be chosen to be starved to death. When the prisoner Franciszek Gajowniczek was selected, he lamented his fate. Moved by the prisoner’s grief, Kolbe asked for Gajowniczek’s life to be spared, telling the guards to take him instead.
  • After two weeks of dehydration and starvation, he was the last to remain alive. The guards gave him a lethal injection of carbolic acid.
  • Maximillian Kolbe was beatified by Pope Paul VI on October 17, 1971, and was canonized on October 10, 1982 by Pope John Paul II.
  • Maximillian Kolbe is the patron saint of drug addicts, prisoners, families, and the pro-life movement.

Saint Maximillian Kolbe, Pray for Us!