Conventual Franciscan, missionary, journalist, founder of communities and magazines, and of an association that is still active and widespread throughout the world, the Militia of the Immaculata. And then a saint and martyr, the world's first «martyr of charity».
Saint Maximilian Kolbe truly managed to live ten lives in one, an existence that ended at just 47. He lived it by «entrusting himself» entirely to the Father, as countless testimonies confirm, and perhaps for this very reason it bore such good and abundant fruit.
But who was Father Kolbe, really?
Saint Maximilian is a universal saint: patron saint of journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement, people with drug addictions, and those suffering from eating disorders.
In his articles, published in the magazines he founded, he addressed the people of his time, offering his reflections to people of every background, profession, and age. Even at Auschwitz, he cared for all his fellow prisoners without distinction. For these reasons, his message remains universally widespread today. He is the saint with a window open onto the world, who speaks to the world.
Love: the dominant element of his spirituality
To reach the heroic act at Auschwitz, offering his life in place of that of a father of a family, he followed a gradual path of charity that led him to love the Lord and his brothers ever more completely. Wonderful apostolic endeavors sprang from the fervor of his heart.
The saint suffered from a serious lung condition: tuberculosis, which endangered his very life. From August 1920 to May 1921 and from September 1926 to April 1927, he was hospitalized at the clinic in Zakopane. Facing his illness, inactivity, and the prospect of an early death with complete abandonment to God enabled him to make a leap in faith that would form the basis of his later missionary journey.
Saint Maximilian and the Madonna
He had a profound devotion to the Mother of God, which led him to found the Militia of the Immaculata in 1917, an organization that is still alive and widespread throughout the world.
The Militia of the Immaculata (M.I.) is a movement founded by Kolbe to support the Church in every age. Prayer, offering, apostolate, and entrustment to the Immaculata represent the heart of the association, which is now widespread throughout the world.
Maximilian Kolbe and communication.
Saint Maximilian was able to «read» the signs of the times perfectly. He realized that supporting the Church's apostolic activity required making use of the most advanced means of communication of the time. He made predominant use of the press, but also evangelized through the «emerging» medium of radio. He founded many magazines in Poland and Japan and, in those same places, two Cities of the Immaculata, large conventual complexes dedicated, and still dedicated today, to a pioneering mission. The Polish City of the Immaculata grew to the point of reaching more than seven hundred friars.
The highest point: martyrdom
Saint Maximilian is the first martyr of charity. He gave his life out of love. The Church was accustomed to martyrs who gave their lives for the faith. In fact, Kolbe's canonization process was the one typically used for confessors of the faith, not for martyrs. It was Saint John Paul II who introduced this new type of martyrdom.
The Nazi regime particularly hated priests. Kolbe also published and distributed many magazines which, although not political in content, challenged the Nazis because they led people to reflect and love. Stopping Kolbe meant stopping the publishing activity he had promoted, stopping a «river» of love flowing through the columns of newspapers.
What Saint Maximilian Kolbe teaches us today We can all reach his level of love. This happens only if our capacity to love is «trained» every day through small acts of charity that, step by step, prepare us to become authentic miracles of love. «Only love creates»: this is Maximilian's motto and legacy.
