St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe was born the second son of a poor weaver on 8 January 1894 at Zdunska Wola near Lodz in Poland, and was given the baptismal name of Raymond. Both parents were devout Christians with a particular devotion to Mary. In childhood, young Raymond was hotheaded and mischievous. One day, however, after his mother had scolded him for some mischief or other, a radical change in his behavior. That night, young Raymond reportedly asked the Blessed Mother of God what was to become of him. In response, St. Maximilian later recounted, Mary came to him in a dream holding two crowns, one white, the other red. In the dream, she asked him if he was willing to accept either of the crowns. The white one meant he would persevere in purity, and the red that he would become a martyr. Raymond accepted them both, and from that night forward, his belief in that dream colored all his future actions.
In 1907, Raymond and his elder brother entered a junior Franciscan seminary in Lwow where Raymond excelled in mathematics and physics. He was recieved as a novice in September 1910 and took the new name of Maximilian. From 1912 to 1915, he studied philosophy in Rome at the Gregorian College, and from 1915 to 1919 theology at the Collegio Serafico. He was ordained in Rome on April 28, 1918. While in Rome, on October 16, 1917, with six companions, he founded the Crusade of Mary Immaculate (Militia Immaculatae), with the aim of “converting sinners, heretics and schismatics, particularly freemasons, and bringing all men to love Mary Immaculate”.
As he entered what was to be the most creative period of his life, Fr Maximilian’s health began to deteriorate. He was in an advanced state of tuberculosis and felt himself overshadowed by death. As a result, his love for Mary became the devouring characteristic of his life. He regarded himself as no more than an instrument of her will. It was for her that he strove to develop all the good that was in him, and he wanted to encourage others to do the same.
In 1919, Fr. Maxilian returned to Poland. The doctors had by now pronounced him incurable. One lung had collapsed and the other was damaged. Still, in January 1922, he began to publish a monthly review, the Knight of the Immaculate, in Krakow. Its aim was to “illuminate the truth and show the true way to happiness through a total devotion to Mary”. As funds were low, only 5,000 copies of the first issue were printed. Undeterred, he moved to another friary in Grodno and acquired a small printing establishment. The review began to grow, and in 1927, 70,000 copies were being printed. Quickly, the Grodno Friary also became too small to house his operation, so Fr. Maximilian began to look for a site nearer to Warsaw. Prince Jan Drucko-Lubecki offered him some land at Teresin, west of Warsaw, and Fr. Maximilian promptly erected a statue of Mary Immaculate there where the monks began construction.
On 21 November 1927, the Franciscans moved from Grodno to Teresin and on 8 December, the friary was consecrated and was given the name of Niepokalanow, the City of the Immaculate. “Niepokalanow”, said Fr Maximilian, “is a place chosen by Mary Immaculate and is exclusively dedicated to spreading her cult. All that is and will be at Niepokalanow will belong to her. The monastic spirit will flourish here; we shall practise obedience and we shall be poor, in the spirit of St Francis.”
At first, Niepokalanow consisted of no more than a few shacks with tar-paper roofs, but it soon flourished. In 1939, it housed 762 inhabitants: 13 priests, 18 novices, 527 brothers, 122 boys in the junior seminary and 82 candidates for the priesthood. No matter how many labourers were in the vineyard, there was always work for more. Among the inhabitants of Niepokalanow there were doctors, dentists, farmers, mechanics, tailors, builders, printers, gardeners, shoemakers, cooks. The place was entirely self-supporting.
The printing house continued to expand as well. New machinery and techniques made it possible to meet the growing demand for Knight of the Immaculate — which had now reached the incredible circulation figure of 750,000 per month — and to produce other publications as well. In 1935, Fr. Kolbe’s press began to produce a daily Catholic newspaper, The Little Daily, of which 137,000 copies were printed on weekdays and 225,000 on Sundays and holydays. On December 8, 1938, a radio station was installed at Neipokalanow with a signature tune played by the brothers’ own orchestra of the Lourdes hymn.
On February 26, 1930, Fr. Maximilian left Poland with four brothers from Niepokalanow on a journey to the Far East. They travelled by way of Port Said, Saigon and Shanghai, and on April 24 landed at Nagasaki in Japan. The going in Japan was hard. Still, one year later the Japanese Niepokalanow was inaugurated — Mugenzai no Sono (the Garden of the Immaculate), built on the slopes of Mount Kikosan. The choice of the site was dictated by poverty but proved to be a lucky one. People thought Fr Maximilian was crazy to build on steep ground sloping away from the town, but in 1945, when the atomic bomb all but levelled Nagaskai, Mugenzai no Sono sustained no more damage than a few broken pains of stained glass.
Fr. Maximilian’s health rapidly deteriorated. In 1936, he was recalled to Poland. By September 13, 1939, Niepokalanow was occupied by the Nazis and most of its inhabitants were deported to Germany. On December 8, however, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the prisoners were set free, and Fr. Kolbe returned to Poland with some remaining friars. There, they organized a shelter for 3,000 Polish refugees, among whom were 2,000 Jews.
On February 17, 1941, Fr. Kolbe was arrested and was eventually sent to Auschwitz. Although he suffered greatly there, he secretly heard confessions in the hospital and spoke to the other inmates of the love of God. 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 in his stead on August 14, 1941 by a lethal carbonic acid injection after three weeks of starvation and dehydration.
Fr. Kolbe was declared a martyr of charity by Pope John Paul II and was canonized on October 10, 1982. He is the patron of drug addiction, addicts, families, imprisoned people, journalists and media, political prisoners, and the pro-life movement.
