Raymond Kolbe
(who took the name Maximilian when he became a friar) is known chiefly for the
manner of his death, but his life was also noteworthy. He was born in 1894 near
Lodz (51:49 N 19:28 E) in a part of Poland then under Russian rule, of parents
who worked at home as weavers. In 1910 he became a Franciscan, taking the name
Maximilian. His parents then undertook the monastic life, his mother as a
Benedictine and his father as a Franciscan. His father left the order (I assume
before taking life vows) to run a religious bookstore, and then enlisted with
Pilsudski's army to fight the Russians. He was captured and hanged as a traitor
in 1914.
Maximilian
studied at Rome and was ordained in 1919. He returned to Poland and taught
Church history in a seminary. He left the seminary (1) to found an association
named for the Virgin Mary and dedicated to spreading the Roman Catholic faith
and assisting those who held it to learn more about it; and (2) to establish a
printing press and publish a periodical for the members of his association,
consisting largely of Christian apologetics. He built a friary just west of
Warsaw (52:15 N 21:00 E), which eventually housed 762 Franciscans and printed
eleven periodicals (one with a circulation of over a million), including a daily
newspaper. In 1930 he went to Asia, where he founded friaries in Nagasaki
(34:25 N 129:52 E) and in India. In 1936 he was recalled to supervise the
original friary near Warsaw. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, he knew that
the friary would be seized, and sent most of the friars home. He was imprisoned
briefly and then released, and returned to the friary, where he and the other
friars sheltered 3000 Poles and 1500 Jews, and continued to publish a newspaper
encouraging its readers.
In May 1941 the
friary was closed down and Maximilian and four companions were taken to
Auschwitz, where they worked with the other prisoners, chiefly at carrying
logs. Maximilian carried on his priestly work surreptitiously, hearing
confessions in unlikely places and celebrating the Lord's Supper with bread and
wine smuggled in for that purpose.
In order to
discourage escapes, the camp had a rule that if a man escaped, ten men would be
killed in retaliation. In July 1941 a man from Kolbe's bunker escaped. The
remaining men of the bunker were led out and ten were selected, including a
Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek. When he uttered a cry of dismay, Maximilian
stepped forward and said, "I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place.
I am old. He has a wife and children." The officer had more use for a
young worker than for an old one, and was happy to make the exchange. The ten
men were placed in a large cell and left there to starve. Maximilian encouraged
the others with prayers, psalms, and meditations on the Passion of Christ.
After two weeks, only four were alive, and only Maximilian was fully conscious.
The four were killed with injections of carbolic acid on 14 August 1941.
