Saint Maximilian Kolbe

Maximilian Kolbe was born in Poland in 1894. At age twelve he had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who offered him two crowns: one white for purity, one red for martyrdom. He chose both. He became a Franciscan priest and founded a massive Catholic publishing operation — at its height producing the world's largest Catholic magazine, reaching a million readers. When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Kolbe hid thousands of refugees at his friary, including 2,000 Jews. In 1941 the Gestapo arrested him. He was sent to Auschwitz — prisoner #16670. Even there he served other prisoners, hearing confessions, leading them in prayer, sharing his rations. In late July 1941, a prisoner escaped from his block. In retaliation, the Nazi commander selected ten men at random to be starved to death. One of the chosen men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out: 'My wife! My children! I will never see them again!' Kolbe stepped forward from the ranks and said, 'I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place. I am old; he has a wife and children.' The commander agreed. Kolbe and the other nine were locked in a starvation bunker. For two weeks he led them in prayer and hymns. One by one the others died. Kolbe was the last alive. On August 14, 1941, the Nazis ended his life with an injection of carbolic acid. He was 47. Franciszek Gajowniczek survived the war, lived another 53 years, and attended Kolbe's canonization in 1982. Pope John Paul II — a fellow Pole who had lived under the Nazi occupation — declared Kolbe a 'martyr of charity.' He is a patron of prisoners, the pro-life movement, and journalists.