Maximilian Kolbe

About Maximilian Kolbe

Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in Auschwitz concentration camp. A priest devoted to Mary, Kolbe founded monasteries and the "Militia Immaculatae" movement. He used modern media—publishing magazines and operating a radio station—to spread the faith. During WWII, Kolbe was arrested for sheltering Jews and sent to Auschwitz. In July 1941, when a prisoner escaped, the Nazis selected ten men to be starved to death in reprisal. When one man, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out for his family, Kolbe volunteered to take his place. For two weeks, Kolbe led prayers and hymns in the starvation bunker, maintaining the men's spirits. When he wouldn't die quickly enough, he was killed by lethal injection on August 14, 1941. Gajowniczek survived the war and lived until 1995, attending Kolbe's canonization in 1982. Kolbe embodies Christ's teaching: "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."