PRESENTATION OUTLINE
FACTS ABOUT MAXIMILIAN KOLBE
He was born on January 8, 1894 in the Poland.
Maximilian went to Japan where he built a monastery and he returned home because of ill health. After the Nazi invasion in 1939, he was imprisoned and released for some time. But in 1941 he was arrested again and sent to a concentration camp at Auschwitz. On July 31, 1941, in payback for one prisoner's escape, ten men were chosen to die. Father Kolbe offered himself in place of a young husband and father. And he was the last to die and endured two weeks of starvation, thirst, and neglect. He was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982. His feast day is August 14th.
MORE FACTS
Maximilian Maria Kolbe was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar, who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the German death camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II. He was active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, founding and supervising the monastery of Niepokalanów near Warsaw, operating a radio station, and founding or running several other organizations and publications.
Let us remember that love lives through sacrifice and is nourished by giving,without sacrifice there is no love- St Maximilian Kolbe
WHAT COULD WE LEARN FROM HIS FOOTSTEP?
We could follow his foot steps by sacrificing the little things in life and not being too greedy.
HOW DID HE SERVE GOD?
Kolbe's life was influenced in 1906 by a childhood vision of the Virgin Mary. He served God by teacher others about him and sacrificing his life for another. He was an ordained priest and was active in promoting the veneration of the Virgin Mary. He housed, fed and clothed the poor, When Maximilian returned to Poland in 1919 he rejoiced to see his country free which he attributed to Mary, shelter for 3,000 Polish refugees, among whom were 2,000 Jews. He was the last to die, enduring two weeks of starvation, thirst, and neglect.
"That night I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both"
- St Maximilian Kolbe
