August 14th - St. Maximilian Kolbe
Second of three sons born to a poor but pious Catholic family in Russian
occupied Poland. His parents, both Franciscan lay tertiaries, worked at
home as weavers. His father, Julius, later ran a religious book store,
then enlisted in Pilsudski's army, fought for Polish independence from
Russia, and was hanged by the Russians as a traitor in 1914. His mother,
Marianne Dabrowska, later became a Benedictine nun. His brother Alphonse
became a priest.
Raymond was known as a mischievous child, sometimes considered wild, and a
trial to his parents. However, in 1906 at Pabianice, at age twelve and
around the time of his first Communion, he received a vision of the Virgin
Mary that changed his life.
"I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me
holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked if I was willing
to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should
persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said
that I would accept them both."
-Saint Maximilian
He entered the Franciscan junior seminary in Lwow, Poland in 1907 where he
excelled in mathematics and physics. For a while he wanted to abandon the
priesthood for the military, but eventually relented to the call to
religious life, and on 4 September 1910 he became a novice in the
Conventual Franciscan Order at age 16. He took the name Maximilian, made
his first vows on 5 September 1911, his final vows on 1 November 1914.
He studied philosophy at the Jesuit Gregorian College in Rome from 1912 to
1915, and theology at the Franciscan Collegio Serafico in Rome from 1915
to 1919. On 16 October 1917, while still in seminary, he and six friends
founded the Immaculata Movement (Militia Immaculatae, Crusade of Mary
Immaculate) devoted to the conversion of sinners, spreading of the
Miraculous Medal (which they wore as their habit), and devotion to Our
Lady and the path to Christ. He was ordained on 28 April 1918 in Rome at
age 24. And received his Doctor of Theology on 22 July 1922.
Maximilian returned to Poland on 29 July 1919 to teach history in the
Crakow seminary. He had to take a medical leave from 10 August 1920 to 28
April 1921 to be treated for tuberculosis at the hospital at Zakpane in
the Tatra Mountains. In January 1922 he began publication of the magazine
Knight of the Immaculate to fight religious apathy; by 1927 the magazine
had a press run of 70,000 issues. He was forced to take another medical
leave from 18 September 1926 to 13 April 1927, but the work continued. The
friaries from which he had worked were not large enough for his work, and
in 1927 Polish Prince Jan Drucko-Lubecki gave him land at Teresin near
Warsaw. There he founded a new monastery of Niepokalanow, the City of the
Immaculate which was consecrated on 8 December 1927. At its peak the
Knight of the Immaculate had a press run of 750,000 copies a month. A
junior seminary was started on the grounds in 1929. In 1935 the house
began printing a daily Catholic newspaper, The Little Daily with a press
run of 137,000 on work days, 225,000 on Sundays and holy days.
Not content with his work in Poland, Maximilian and four brothers left for
Japan in 1930. Within a month of their arrival, penniless and knowing no
Japanese, Maximilian was printing a Japanese version of the Knight; the
magazine, Seibo no Kishi grew to a circulation of 65,000 by 1936. In 1931
he founded a monastery in Nagasaki, Japan comparable to Niepokalanow. It
survived the war, including the nuclear bombing, and serves today as a
center of Franciscan work in Japan.
In mid-1932 he left Japan for Malabar, India where he founded a third
Niepokalanow house. However, due to a lack of manpower, it did not
survive.
Poor health forced him to curtail his missionary work and return to Poland
in 1936. On 8 December 1938 the monastery started its own radio station.
By 1939 the monastery housed a religious community of nearly 800 men, the
largest in the world in its day, and was completely self-sufficient
including medical facilities and a fire brigade staffed by the religious
brothers.
Arrested with several of his brothers on 19 September 1939 following the
nαzι invasion of Poland. Others at the monastery were briefly exiled, but
the prisoners were released on 8 December 1939, and the men returned to
their work. Back at Niepokalanow he continued his priestly ministry, The
brothers housed 3,000 Polish refugees, two-thirds of whom were Jєωιѕн, and
continued their publication work, including materials considered
anti-nαzι. For this work the presses were shut down, the congregation
suppressed, the brothers dispersed, and Maximilian was imprisoned in
Pawiak prison, Warsaw, Poland on 17 February 1941.
On 28 May 1941 he was transferred to Auschwitz and branded as prisoner
16670. He was assigned to a special work group staffed by priests and
supervised by especially vicious and abusive guards. His calm dedication
to the faith brought him the worst jobs available, and more beatings than
anyone else. At one point he was beaten, lashed, and left for dead. The
prisoners managed to smuggle him into the camp hospital where he spent his
recovery time hearing confessions. When he returned to the camp,
Maximilian ministered to other prisoners, including conducting Mass and
delivering communion using smuggled bread and wine.
In July 1941 there was an escape from the camp. Camp protocol, designed to
make the prisoners guard each other, required that ten men be slaughtered
in retribution for each escaped prisoner. Francis Gajowniczek, a married
man with young children was chosen to die for the escape. Maximilian
volunteered to take his place, and died as he had always wished-in
service.
Beatified 17 October 1971 by Pope Paul VI; his beatification miracles
include the July 1948 cure of intestinal tuberculosis of Angela Testoni,
and August 1950 cure of calcification of the arteries/sclerosis of Francis
Ranier. Canonized 10 October 1982 by Pope John Paul II; declared a martyr
of charity
Patronage drug addiction, drug addicts, families, imprisoned people,
journalists, political prisoners, prisoners, pro-life movement
Quote:
And we ourselves experience this, that when we enter ornate and clean
Basilicas, adorned with crosses, sacred images, altars, and burning lamps,
we most easily conceive devotion. But, on the other hand, when we enter
the temples of the heretics, where there is nothing except a chair for
preaching and a wooden table for making a meal, we feel ourselves to be
entering a profane hall and not the house of God.
-St. Robert Bellarmine
Bible Quote
1 The wise men will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients, and will be
occupied in the prophets. 2 He will keep the sayings of renowned men, and
will enter withal into the subtilties of parables. (Ecclesiasticus
39:1-2)
<<<<<<
An act of conformity to the Will of God:
Behold me here, O Lord;
do with me what Thou wilt.
May Thy Will be ever done;
I only desire what Thou wilt.
I desire to suffer what Thou willest;
I desire to die when Thou willest.
Into Thy hands I commend my body,
my soul, my life, and my death.
I love Thee, O my God,
whether it pleaseth Thee to send me
consolations or afflictions,
and I desire to love Thee always.
Eternal Father, I unite my death to that of Jesus Christ,
and I offer it to Thee in order to please Thee.
Will of my God, Thou art my love.
Good pleasure of my God,
I devote myself entirely to Thee. Amen.
Topic: St. Maximilian Kolbe (Read 2013 times)