He was born as Raymund Kolbe in Poland. He's very active in promoting the Immaculate Virgin Mary and is known as the Apostle of Consecration to Mary. His life was strongly influenced by a vision he had of the Virgin Mary when he was 12.
That night he asked the Mother of God what was to become of him. Then she came to him holding two crowns, one white and the other red. She asked him if he was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that he should persevere in purity, and the red that he should become a martyr. He said that he would accept them both.
One year after his vision, he and his elder brother joined the Conventual Franciscans and was given the religious name Maximilian, after being allowed to enter the novitiate and professed his first vows.
At the age of 21, he earned a doctorate in philosophy and a doctorate in theology by the time he was 28.
His goal was to work for the conversion of sinners and enemies of the Church, and he would do so with the intercession of Mary. In 1918, he was ordained a priest and continued his work of promoting Mary throughout Poland. Over the next several years, he took on publishing.
He also found monasteries in Japan and India.
His poor health forced him to return home to Poland and once the WWII invasion by Germany began, he became one of the only brothers to remain in the monastery. He opened up a temporary hospital to aid those in need. When his town was captured, he was sent to prison but released 3 months later.
He refused to sign a document that would recognize him as a German citizen with his German ancestry and continued to work in his monastery, providing shelter for refugees - including hiding 2,000 Jews from German persecution.
After receiving permission to continue his religious publishing, his monastery acted as a publishing house again and issued many anti-Nazi German publications.
On 1941, the monastery was shut down, he was arrested and taken to the prison and was transferred to Auschwitz. Never abandoning his priesthood, he was the victim to severe violence and harassment. Toward the end of his second month, men were chosen to face death by starvation to warn against escapes. He was not chosen but he volunteered to take the place of a man with a family.
It's said during the last days of his life, he led prayers to Our Lady with the prisoners and remained calm. He was the last of the group to remain alive, after two weeks of dehydration and starvation. The guards gave him a lethal injection of carbolic acid. He raised his left arm and calmly awaited death.
He died on August 14 and his remains were cremated on August 15, the same day as the Assumption of Mary feast day.
Comments
Post a Comment