Sunday Saints: Maximilian Kolbe

Today's saint is one I first came across in a book during middle school. I was in the midst of falling in love with Anne Frank, and was amazed by the purity of Maximilian's sacrifice during what I was sure was the most horrific period in world history. It was also the first time in my life that I'd heard of a saint from the modern era, which was inspiring in its own right.



Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan friar who helped form a community of 800 men in his native Poland, and then went on to build a comparable monastery in Japan. He was also a missionary to India, returning home to Poland in 1936.

When the Nazis invaded in 1939, he was imprisoned and briefly released before being recaptured and sent to Auschwitz in 1941.

On July 31, 1941, after a fellow prisoner's failed escape attempt, ten men were sentenced to death by starvation in an underground bunker. One of the chosen men broke down in tears, shouting "My wife! My children!"

Maxmilian volunteered to die in his place.

He was then purported to celebrate Mass and sing hymns every day with the other nine condemned, lifting spirits and offering comfort as, one by one, his fellow prisoners succumbed to dehydration. When, two weeks later, only Maximilian remained alive, he was given a lethal injection by his Nazi captors.

Most loving Father, whose Son Jesus Christ came to give his life as a ransom for many: Give us the grace, as you did to your servant Maximilian Kolbe, to be always ready to come to the aid of those in need or distress, not counting the cost; that so we may follow in the footsteps of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.