Raymond Kolbe was born on January 8,
1894, in Zdunska-Wola, Poland. Lively and clever, while still a
child, he felt drawn to follow the Lord and love the Immaculata
who had prodigiously offered him two crowns: one white,
symbolizing purity, and the other red, symbolizing martyrdom.
As a young man, he joined the Conventual
Franciscan Friars and received the religious name Maximilian.
Shortly after, he was sent to Rome to complete his studies in
philosophy and theology.
Polish by birth but universal in spirit,
taking inspiration from the most authentic Marian tradition of
his Franciscan Order, on October 16, 1917, he established the
Militia of the Immaculata, a public association of the
faithful, which is international and universal. Its
spirituality consists in living a total consecration to the
Immaculata in order to attain, after her example, a more
perfect union with Christ and in order to collaborate with Her
for the spreading of Christ's Kingdom in the world.
Ordained a priest in 1918, Fr. Maximilian
returned to Poland and began his untiring missionary activity.
He not only started publishing a monthly magazine –The
Knight of the Immaculata- but, in 1927, he also established
Niepokalanów (the City of the Immaculata), where about
700 friars totally consecrated to Mary devoted themselves to
various evangelization activities, especially to the printed
word apostolate.
In 1930, moved by the desire to lead the
whole world to Christ through Mary, he went to Japan to
establish a second City of the Immaculata, Mugenzai no Sono,
close to Nagasaki.
Suffering from tuberculosis, he returned
in 1936 to Poland and spent himself for the spiritual and
apostolic development of Niepokalanów that had become
the most prominent Catholic publishing house in Poland.
In 1939, when World War II broke out,
Niepokalanów, damaged by bombs, was used as a hospital
and refuge for thousands of refugees, especially Jews.
Maximilian continued his press apostolate until February 17,
1941, when he was arrested and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison,
near Warsaw. On May 28, 1941 he was permanently transferred to
the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he was destined to hard
labor.
With his customary simplicity and
determination, Maximilian, prisoner 16670, continued to be an
instrument in the hands of the Immaculata in the midst of his
fellow prisoners. Giving heroic witness to the Gospel of
charity, he freely offered his own life for an unknown prisoner
who had been condemned to death in the starvation bunker.
After nearly two weeks of intense
sufferings, he was killed by an injection of carbolic acid on
August 14, 1941, the eve of the Solemnity of the Assumption of
Our Lady into Heaven. On August 15, his body was cremated and
his ashes were scattered to the wind. His holiness and his
spiritual and apostolic legacy have since spread throughout the
world. On October 10, 1982, John Paul II proclaimed him a
Saint, as a martyr of charity.
