Feast of Saint Maximilian Kolbe

Today is the Feast of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who was born in Poland in the year 1894. He had a great devotion to the Mother of God. At the age of 10 he had a vision of Our Blessed Mother holding two crowns in her hand: one was white and the other was red. The white crown represented purity and the red crown represented martyrdom. Maximilian chose both crowns. When he was fourteen he and his brother joined the Franciscans and he was ordained as a priest, thus putting on the white crown of purity. During the Nazi oppression Maximilian ran several publications to speak against Nazism. His father was arrested and hung by the Nazis in 1914. Maximilian used the latest technologies available to them in those days like the radio and motion pictures to spread the Gospel message and devotion to the Mother of God and to condone the Nazis. In the year 1941 he was arrested and sent to the concentration camp in Auschwitz. When a prisoner from the camp escaped the Nazi soldiers chose ten men to be executed by starvation in a bunker. Franciszek Gajowniczek was among the ten men chosen and he cried out saying he had a wife and children. When Maximilian heard this he stepped forward to take the place of Franciszek. In the starvation bunker he led the men in prayer and singing of hymns, he did not despair. After three weeks he and a few other prisoners who were still alive and were executed by lethal injection. Eye-witnesses say that he was very patient and never complained or asked for anything, even in the starvation bunker he had a pleasant smile on his face. In his death he received the red crown of martyrdom. John Paul II canonized him in the year 1982 and Franciszek was in attendance. Saint Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of journalists and publishers. May we seek his intercession today on his feast day!