You might have heard about St Maximilian Kolbe and his heroic deed, giving his life for another prisoner in Auschwitz, but did you know about his dedication to Mary and his printing endeavors? Some interesting facts about the life of Kolbe:
    St. Maximilian Kolbe was born on January 8, 1894, in Poland.
Kolbe was baptized Raymund Kolbe and had a normal childhood until, at the tender age of 10, Mother Mary appeared to him as the Immaculate. She was holding two crowns for him to choose from, a white one, symbolizing chastity and purity, and a red one, symbolic for martyrdom. Kolbe accepted both of them. This vision greatly influenced his devotion to Mary Immaculate.
    Only one year after this encounter, Kolbe, together with his brother Francis crossed, in secret, from the Russian to the Austrian part of Poland to enter a Franciscan convent. He began his novitiate in 1910, taking on the name  Maximilian and professed his first vows in 1911.
Max was sent to Rome to study philosophy and theology. It was there that he created a Catholic evangelization movement, the Militia Immaculata (Army of the Immaculate One) after he witnessed Freemasons demonstrating against the Pope. He emphasized the conversion of sinners and to counteract the influence of the enemies of the Church, mainly the Freemasons, by encouraging consecration to the Immaculate Virgin Mary with the motto “Through Mary to Jesus”.
    Maximilian became known as the “Knight of the Immaculata”, was ordained a priest in 1918, and continued his work throughout Poland. Although he became sick with tuberculosis, he started publishing a magazine “Knight of the Immaculate”, which was published every month as well as books at the new Franciscan monastery he founded. Although the friars lived in strict poverty, they used the most advanced printing technology. In 1930, Maximilian, with several friars, went to Japan to start another monastery there and to proliferate evangelization material.
    When Kolbe’s health deteriorated and the Tuberculosis advanced in 1936, he returned to Poland. Max had the change to sign a document that would identify him as a German, however he declined and continued to help refugees, including 2,000 Jews, opened a temporary hospital, and published anti-Nazi papers.
    When Poland was overtaken by the Nazis and they were getting closer to Kolbe’s monastery in 1939, he rushed to complete the outline of his book on Our Lady of Lourdes “I am the Immaculate Conception”, which helped develop the understanding that Mary is the gateway to Jesus. Maximilian Kolbe was arrested and let go three months later, however in 1941 arrested again by the Gestapo and soon sent to the concentration camp in Auschwitz where he became prisoner #16670.
    After a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz, 10 men were condemned to die by starvation as a deterrent and punishment. Kolbe volunteered to die in place of one man, Franciszek Gajowniczek who had family. It is said that Maximilian continued to lead the prisoners in prayer to Mary, ministered to them throughout their three weeks of starvation and dehydration, and was the last of the group to die after a lethal injection.
    Kolbe died on August 14^th, the day before the Feast of Assumption of Mary and was beatified in 1971 with the opening words “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). The man he saved, Franciszek, attended his Canonization in Rome 1982
    St Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of journalists, media communications, the family, prisoners, the pro-life movement, and the chemically addicted.
   In the United States, you can visit the Shrine of St Maximilian Kolbe at Marytown in Libertyville, Illinois, approximately 30 miles north of Chicago.
“A single act of love makes the soul return to life”
“Let us remember that love lives through sacrifice and is nourished by giving”