Bio: Raymund Kolbe was born in the Kingdom of Poland which, at that time, was a puppet state of the Russian Empire. In 1903, Raymund witnessed a vision of The Virgin Mary holding a white crown (symbolizing purity) and a red one (martyrdom) and asked him if he will accept one of them byt he responded with saying he will accept both. So 4 years later, Raymund, with his brother, joined the Orders of Friars Minor, started by St. Francis of Assisi, and in 1910, the brothers allowed him to join the novitate where he took on the name "Maximilian" and he took his first vows in 1911 and his final vows in 1914 where he took the additional name of Maria. Then, while Maximilian was in Russia in 1914, WW1 broke out and his father, Julius, joined the Rolish Legions but the Russians later captured him and hung him as a traitor and this devestated Maximilian. In 1917, Maximilian started the Militia Immaculatae which was a group of Catholics who prayed for the Virgin Mary to intercede and grant the conversion of sinners and enimies of the Catholic Chruch. In 1918, Maximilian was ordained a priest and returned to Poland after WW1 was over in July of 1919 to teach at the Kraków Seminary. The invasion of Poland in 1939 signaled the start of WW2 and Kolbe stayed at the monestary where he started a temporary hospital for the injured and the Nazis arrested him on September 19, 1939 but since his father was a German, he was released on December 8, 1939. Kolbe went back to the monestary and sheltered many people in it including over 2,000 hidden Jewish people. On Febuary 17, 1941, Gestapo shut down the monestary and arrested Kolbe and was brought to Pawiak Prison before getting transferred to Auschwitz as prisoner 16670. At Auschwitz, Kolbe started ministering to his fellow prisioners and despite butal beatings and harrasment from guards, Kolbe stayed alive thanks to the other prisoners who helped treat him for his injuries. at the end of July of 1941, a prisoner escaped from the camp and as a reprisal, the camp commander ordered 10 men to be sent to the starvation bunker. One of these people selected, Franciszek Gajowniczek, started crying out, "My wife! My children!" At that moment. Kolbe offered to take his place. Kolbe led prisoners in prayer through his cell and despite being deprived of food and water for 2 weeks, Kolbe and 4 others were still alive. Impatient to empty the bunkers, the guards gave to remaining prisoners lethal injections of carbolic acid. Kolbe simply lifted his arm, said, "Ave Maria" and waited for death. Kolbe was later canonized to be a saint by another Polish man, Pope John Paul II and the man that St. Maximilian Kolbe saved 40 years prior, Gajowniczek, was a guest at the cononization.
St. Maximilian Kolbe, Pray for Us!