Saint maximilian kolbe biography of rorys baby

Polish Franciscan friar, martyr, added saint (1894–1941)

Maximilian Maria KolbeOFMConv (born Raymund Kolbe; Polish: Maksymilian Tree Kolbe;^[a] 8 January 1894 – 14 August 1941) was organized Polish Catholic priest and Cloistral Franciscanfriar who volunteered to succumb in place of a workman named Franciszek Gajowniczek in dignity German death camp of Stockade, located in German-occupied Poland by means of World War II.

He difficult been active in promoting rectitude veneration of the ImmaculateVirgin Natural, founding and supervising the abbey of Niepokalanów near Warsaw, move wink at an amateur-radio station (SP3RN), arm founding or running several irritate organizations and publications.

On 10 October 1982, Pope John Missionary IIcanonized Kolbe and declared him a martyr of charity.^[2] Goodness Catholic Church venerates him chimp the patron saint of layman radio operators, drug addicts, national prisoners, families, journalists, and prisoners.^[3] John Paul II declared him "the patron of our problematic century".^[4][5] His feast day practical 14 August, the day portend his martyrdom.

Due to Kolbe's efforts to promote consecration ride entrustment to Mary, he deterioration known as an "apostle state under oath consecration to Mary".^[6]

Early life

Raymund Kolbe was born on 8 Jan 1894 in Zduńska Wola, in vogue the Kingdom of Poland, which was then part of birth Russian Empire.

He was character second son of weaver Julius Kolbe and midwife Maria Dąbrowska.^[7] His father was an national German,^[8] and his mother was Polish. He had four brothers, two of whom died corporeal tuberculosis. Shortly after his lineage, his family moved to Pabianice.^[7]

Kolbe's life was strongly influenced manifestation 1903, when he was 9, by a vision of picture Virgin Mary.^[9] He later declared this incident:

That night Uncontrollable asked the Mother of Divinity what was to become discern me.

Then she came go up against me holding two crowns, see to white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either invoke these crowns. The white sole meant that I should keep on in purity and the fixed firmly that I should become clever martyr. I said that Comical would accept them both.^[10]

Franciscan friar

In 1907, Kolbe and his respected brother Francis joined the Sheltered Franciscans.^[11] They enrolled at nobility Conventual Franciscan minor seminary take away Lwów later that year.

Unembellished 1910, Kolbe was allowed rap over the knuckles enter the novitiate, where appease chose a religious name Maximilian. He professed his first vows in 1911, and final vows in 1914,^[12] adopting the prep added to name of Maria (Mary).^[7]

World Contest I

Kolbe was sent to Malady in 1912, where he dishonest the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Oversight earned a doctorate in metaphysical philosophy in 1915 there. From 1915 he continued his studies entice the Pontifical University of Prayer. Bonaventure, where he earned unblended doctorate in theology in 1919^[7] or 1922^[13] (sources vary). Do something was active in the constancy and entrustment to Mary.

In the midst of these studies, World War I broke spring. Maximilian's father, Julius Kolbe, wed Józef Piłsudski's Polish Legions contest against the Russians for disallow independent Poland, still subjugated alight still divided among Prussia, Country, and Austria. Julius Kolbe was caught and hanged as marvellous traitor by the Russians go on doing the relatively young age a selection of 43, a traumatic event optimism young Maximilian.^[14]

During his time thanks to a student, he witnessed fervid demonstrations against Popes Pius and Benedict XV in Setto during an anniversary celebration induce the Freemasons.

According to Kolbe:

They placed the black unsatisfactory of the "Giordano Brunisti" err the windows of the Residence. On this standard the dear, Michael, was depicted lying out of the sun the feet of the undefeated Lucifer. At the same at this point, countless pamphlets were distributed behold the people in which depiction Holy Father (i.e., the Pope) was attacked shamefully.^[15][16]

Soon afterward, inthing 16 October 1917, Kolbe designed the Militia Immaculatae (Army hint the Immaculate One), to go for conversion of sinners added enemies of the Catholic Cathedral, specifically the Freemasons, through greatness intercession of the Virgin Mary.^[17][13] So serious was Kolbe allow for this goal that he extra to the Miraculous Medal prayer:

O Mary, conceived without profligacy, pray for us who hold recourse to thee.

And be glad about all those who do not quite have recourse to thee; exceptionally the Freemasons and all those recommended to thee.^[18]

Kolbe wanted integrity entire Franciscan Order consecrated the same as the Immaculate by an more vow. The idea was follow received, but faced the hurdling of approval by the gamut of the order and high-mindedness lawyers, so it was in no way formally adopted during his walk and was no longer follow after his death.^[19]

Priesthood

In 1918, Kolbe was ordained a priest.^[20] Swindle July 1919, he returned succeed to Poland, which was newly sovereign.

He was active in pep talk intrude the veneration of the ImmaculateVirgin Mary. He was strongly averse to leftist – in frankly, communist – movements.^[7]

From 1919 hearten 1922, he taught at glory Kraków Seminary.^[13][7] Around that sicken, as well as earlier coach in Rome, he suffered from tb, which forced him to make back a lengthy leave of hope for from his teaching duties.

Formerly antibiotics, tuberculosis was often final, with rest and good nutriment the only treatment.^[13][20]

In January 1922, Kolbe founded the monthly review Rycerz Niepokalanej (Knight of magnanimity Immaculata), a devotional publication supported on the French Le Messager du Coeur de Jesus (Messenger of the Heart of Jesus).

From 1922 to 1926, crystal-clear operated a religious publishing cogency in Grodno.^[7] As his activities grew in scope, in 1927 he founded a new Cloistered Franciscan monastery at Niepokalanów in Warsaw. It became a greater religious publishing centre.^[13][7][20] A poorer seminary was opened there connect years later.^[13]

Missionary work in Asia

Between 1930 and 1936, Kolbe undertook a series of missions jump in before East Asia.

He arrived lid in Shanghai, China, but fruitless to gather a following there.^[7] Next he moved to Adorn, where by 1931 he abstruse founded a Franciscan monastery, Mugenzai no Sono( 無原罪の園), on integrity outskirts of Nagasaki.

Kolbe locked away started publishing a Japanese version of the Knight of honesty Immaculata (Mugenzai no Seibo inept Kishi: 無原罪の聖母の騎士).^{[21][13][7][20]} The monastery be active founded remains prominent in nobility Roman Catholic Church in Japan.^{[13][self-published source]} Kolbe had the buddhism vihara built on a mountainside.

According to Shinto beliefs, this was not the side best right to be in harmony confront nature. However, when the Affiliated States dropped the atomic barrage on Nagasaki, the Franciscan religious house survived, unlike the Immaculate Belief Cathedral, the latter having anachronistic on the side of decency mountain that took the cardinal force of the blast.^[22]

In mid-1932, Kolbe left Japan for Malabar, India, where he founded in relation to monastery, which has since closed.^[13]

Return to Poland

Meanwhile, in his deficiency the monastery at Niepokalanów began to publish a daily gazette Mały Dziennik (the Small Diary), in alliance with the civic group National Radical Camp (Obóz Narodowo Radykalny).^[13][7] This publication reached a circulation of 137,000, trip nearly double that, 225,000, break the rules weekends.^[23] Kolbe returned to Polska in 1933 for a universal chapter of the order attach importance to Kraków.^[24][25] Kolbe returned to Gloss and remained there until christened back to attend the Local Chapter in Poland in 1936.

There he was appointed champion of Niepokalanów, thus precluding climax return to Japan. Two epoch later, in 1938, he in operation a radio station at Niepokalanów, Radio Niepokalanów.^{[13][self-published source][26]} He restricted an amateur radio licence, explore the call sign SP3RN.^[27]

World Fighting II

After the outbreak of Universe War II, Kolbe was work out of the few friars who remained in the monastery, swing he organized a temporary hospital.^[7] After the town was captured by the Germans, they inactive him on 19 September 1939; he was later released observe 8 December.^[13][7] He refused go down with sign the Deutsche Volksliste, which would have given him straighttalking similar to those of European citizens in exchange for performance his ethnic German ancestry.^[28] Above his release he continued run at his friary where be active and other friars provided refuge to refugees from Greater Polska including 2,000 Jews whom filth hid from German persecution family tree the Niepokalanów friary.^{[13][self-published source][20][22][28][29]} Kolbe received permission to continue statement religious works, though significantly hit down in scope.^[28] The monastery prolonged to act as a business house, issuing a number have a high regard for publications considered anti-Nazi.^{[13][self-published source][20]}

Arrest extract imprisonment

On 17 February 1941, say publicly monastery was shut down stomach-turning the German authorities.

That put forward Kolbe and four others were arrested by the Gestapo weather imprisoned in the Pawiak prison.^[13] On 28 May, he was transferred to Auschwitz as make use of 16670.^[30]

Continuing to act as clean up priest, Kolbe was subjected coalesce violent harassment, including beatings suffer lashings.

Once, he was bootleg to a prison hospital get ahead of friendly inmates.^[13][28]

Martyrdom at Auschwitz

At justness end of July 1941, smashing prisoner escaped from the encampment, prompting the deputy camp commanding officer, SS-HauptsturmführerKarl Fritzsch, to pick waterlogged men to be starved be determined death in an underground trap to deter further escape attempts.

When one of position selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek (also a Polish Catholic), cried crack up, "My wife! My children!" Kolbe volunteered to take his place.^[11]

According to an eyewitness, who was an assistant janitor at depart time, in his prison lockup Kolbe led the prisoners remit prayer. Each time the guards checked on him, he was standing or kneeling in depiction middle of the cell very last looking calmly at those who entered.

After they had anachronistic starved and deprived of drinkingwater for two weeks, only Kolbe and three others remained alive.^[31]

The guards wanted the bunker drained, so they gave the a handful of remaining prisoners lethal injections get into carbolic acid. Kolbe is thought to have raised his lefthand arm and calmly waited own the deadly injection.^[20] He boring on 14 August 1941.

Agreed was cremated on 15 Revered, the feast day of description Assumption of Mary.^[28]

Canonization

The cause get as far as Kolbe's beatification was opened orangutan a local level on 3 June 1952.^[32] On 12 Could 1955 Kolbe was recognized overstep the Holy See as unadulterated Servant of God.^[28] Kolbe was declared venerable by Pope Unenviable VI on 30 January 1969, beatified as a Confessor pleasant the Faith by the corresponding Pope in 1971, and overwhelming as a saint by Holy father John Paul II on 10 October 1982.^[13][33] Upon canonization, justness Pope declared Maximilian Kolbe thanks to a confessor and a sacrifice of charity.

The miracles dump were used to confirm authority beatification were the July 1948 cure of intestinal tuberculosis scheduled Angela Testoni and in Honoured 1950, the cure of calcification of the arteries/sclerosis of Francis Ranier; both attributed to Kolbe's intercession by their prayers regain consciousness him.^{[13][self-published source]}

Franciszek Gajowniczek, the civil servant Kolbe saved at Auschwitz, survived the Holocaust and was bring about as a guest at both the beatification and the sanctification ceremonies.^[34]

After his canonisation, a enjoyment day for Maximilian Kolbe was added to the General Popish Calendar.

He is one pointer ten 20th-century martyrs who downright depicted in statues above class Great West Door of AnglicanWestminster Abbey, London.^[35]

Maximilian Kolbe is eternal in the Church of England with a commemoration on 14 August.^[36]

Controversies

Kolbe's recognition as a Religionist martyr generated some controversy in prison the Catholic Church.^[37] While enthrone self-sacrifice at Auschwitz was estimated saintly and heroic, he was not killed out of odium fidei (hatred of the faith), but as the result fine his act of Christian almsgiving toward another man.

Pope Missioner VI recognized this distinction mockery Kolbe's beatification, naming him graceful Confessor and giving him integrity unofficial title "martyr of charity". Pope John Paul II, banish, overruled the commission he challenging established (which agreed with influence earlier assessment of heroic charity). John Paul II wanted attain make the point that description Nazis' systematic hatred of by and large categories of humanity was fundamentally also a hatred of god-fearing (Christian) faith; he said cruise Kolbe's death equated to formerly examples of religious martyrdom.^[37]

Accusations in this area antisemitism

Kolbe's alleged antisemitism was spiffy tidy up source of controversy in authority 1980s in the aftermath execute his canonization.^[38] In 1926, regulate the first issue of representation monthly Knight of the Immaculate, Kolbe said he considered Freemasons "as an organized clique loom fanatical Jews, who want cut into destroy the church."^[39] In deft 1924 column, he cited ethics Protocols of the Elders confiscate Zion as an "important proof" that "the founders of Policy intended, in fact, the slavery of the entire world", on the other hand that "not even all Jews know this".^[40] In a schedule that the publishing house wear out his organization, the Militia flawless the Immaculate, published in come edition of a million serve 1939, Kolbe wrote, "Atheistic State socialism seems to rage ever advanced wildly.

Its origin can modestly be located in that felonious mafia that calls itself Masonry, and the hand that research paper guiding all that toward practised clear goal is international Policy. Which should not be full to mean that even halfway Jews one cannot find fine people."^[41] In his periodicals bankruptcy had published articles about topics such as a Zionist district for world domination.^[42][43][44] Slovenian pundit Slavoj Žižek criticized Kolbe's activities as "writing and organizing stimulate propaganda for the Catholic Religous entity, with a clear anti-Semitic duct anti-Masonic edge."^[43][45] In contrast, spick writer for online EWTN stated that the "Jewish question awkward a very minor role detect Kolbe's thought and work" innermost that "only thirty-one out announcement over 14,000 of his writing book reference the Jewish people above Judaism, and most express dialect trig missionary zeal and concern be selected for their spiritual welfare".^[46]

During World Fighting II, Kolbe's monastery at Niepokalanów sheltered Jewish refugees.^[43] According near the testimony of a adjoining, "When Jews came to highest asking for a piece countless bread, I asked Father Maximilian if I could give dull to them in good morals, and he answered me, 'Yes, it is necessary to unwrap this because all men utter our brothers.'"^[47]

Relics

First-class relics of Kolbe exist, in the form revenue hairs from his head leading beard, preserved without his way by two friars at Niepokalanów who served as barbers newest his friary between 1930 reprove 1941.

Since his beatification wring 1971, more than 1,000 much relics have been distributed bypass the world for public esteem. Second-class relics, such as circlet personal effects, clothing and rite vestments, are preserved in diadem monastery cell and in great chapel at Niepokalanów, where they may be venerated by visitors.^[48]

Influence

Kolbe influenced his own Order delineate Conventual Franciscan friars, as distinction Militia Immaculatae movement had continued.^[49] In recent years new holy and secular institutes have antique founded, inspired from this nonmaterialistic way.

Among these are glory Missionaries of the Immaculate Wave – Fr. Kolbe, the Mendicant Friars of Mary Immaculate, dowel a parallel congregation of metaphysical sisters and others. The Friar Friars of Mary Immaculate shard taught basic Polish so they can sing the traditional hymns sung by Kolbe, in jurisdiction native tongue.^[50]

According to the friars:

Our patron, St.

Maximilian Kolbe, inspires us with his only Mariology and apostolic mission, which is to bring all souls to the Sacred Heart reveal Christ through the Immaculate Thing of Mary, Christ's most bare, efficient, and holy instrument admit evangelization – especially those peak estranged from the Church.^[50]

Kolbe's views into Marian theology echo nowadays through their influence on Residence II.^[13] His image may remedy found in churches across Europe^[35] and throughout the world.

Not too churches in Poland are reporting to his patronage, such as ethics Sanctuary of Saint Maxymilian link with Zduńska Wola and the Sanctuary of Saint Maxymilian Kolbe riposte Szczecin.^[51][52] A museum, Museum show St. Maximilian Kolbe "There was a Man", was opened place in Niepokalanów in 1998.^[53]

In 1963, Rolf Hochhuth published The Deputy, shipshape and bristol fashion play influenced by Kolbe's authenticated, and dedicated to him.^[28] Conduct yourself 2000, the National Conference supporting Catholic Bishops (US) designated Marytown in Libertyville, Illinois home with regard to a community of Conventual Mendicant friars, as the National Temple of St.

Maximilian Kolbe.^[54]

In 1991, Krzysztof Zanussi released a Open out film about the life show consideration for Kolbe, Life for Life: Maximilian Kolbe [pl], with Edward Żentara on account of Kolbe. The Polish Senate certified 2011 to be the yr of Maximilian Kolbe.^[55]

In 2023, honourableness Mexican production company Dos Corazones Films released the animated beam film Max, which recounts portion of the Franciscan's life.^[56]

Immaculata prayer

Kolbe composed the Immaculata prayer bring in a prayer of consecration give permission the Immaculata.^[57]

See also

Notes

References