Maximilian Kolbe was born Raymond Koble, on January 8th, 1894. He was born in Zdunska Wola in central Poland, and as a young boy had a deep spiritual experience that began to set the course for his life. In 1907, he joined the Conventual Franciscans, taking the name of Maximillian.
The information in this blog comes from our secondary resource.
Title 14: God’s Heroes & Heroines – Part 6: People of Faith and virtue – Page 3
Title 20: The Holy Spirit – Part 6: People of the Spirit – Page 7
Title 20: The Holy Spirit – Part 6: People of the Spirit – Page 8
Title 22: Called to Holiness and Service – Part 2: Vocation – Participating in the Life of Christ – Page 6
Title 54: To Be Fully Suman (SiCT) – Part 6: The Challenge of Remaining Free – Page 5
Title 54: To Be Fully Suman (SiCT) – Part 6: The Challenge of Remaining Free – Page 6
When studying in Rome, Maximilian saw demonstrations against the pope and the Catholic faith. On his return to Poland, he established an organisation under Mary’s patronage to promote the conversion of those working against the Church. He was ordained a priest in 1918, and founded a Franciscan monastery in Niepokalanow in 1927, which came to be home to around 700 friars. Between 1930 and 1936, he travelled to Japan to found another monastery at Nagasaki.
Not long after his return, World War II started. The monastery was ransacked in 1939, and Maximilian as well as other friars were arrested, with some released months later. They sought shelter in the monastery with many Jews and refugees, which led the friars to come under increasing suspicion. In 1941, he was arrested again, but this time taken to Auschwitz concentration camp and given prisoner number 16670.
Like in the camp was especially difficult for priests, and they were given the worst jobs. During his time, Kolbe was once beaten and left for dead, yet still continued to minister to the prisoners, hearing confessions and offering Eucharist where he could.
There was a protocol in the concentration camp that for every prisoner who escaped, ten others would be chosen to die as retaliation. A prisoner from Kolbe’s block escaped and consequently, this meant ten others were chosen to relocate to the starvation cell. One of the men chosen, Franciszek Gajowniczek, began to shout, ‘My wife, my children, I shall never see them again!’ On hearing this, Koble bravely offered to stand in his place, as he was a priest with no wife or children to worry about. The offer was accepted by the guards.
After being transferred and spending over 5 years total in concentration camps, Gajowniczek was liberated by the Allies and reunited with his wife in 1944. He lived until the age of 93 in 1995 and spent the remainder of his life telling people about the heroic act of love by Maximilian Koble.
During their time in the starvation cell, Kolbe did what he could to lift the spirits of the other prisoners. He prayed the Rosary, sang songs with them, and offered Mass when he was able. Two weeks after the prisoners entered the cell, Koble was the only one left alive and was put to death by an injection of carbolic acid on the 14th of August 1941. His remains were cremated on the 15th, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. Koble was beatified in 1971, where Franciszek was present at this sacred occasion. Kolbe was later canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1982.
The Nazis took away Kolbe’s external freedom when they imprisoned, tortured, and killed him, but they were never able to curtail his inner freedom to act in accordance with the true good. The fruit of true, selfless, and compassionate love was actualised in the life of St Maximilian Koble.