ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

Maximilian Maria Kolbe OFM Conv

Fr Ivan Aquilina

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. I remember singing this verse in the responsorial psalm at St Peter’s Square in Rome on the 10th October 1982 when Pope John Paul II canonised Maximilian Maria Kolbe, the Martyr of Charity. Indeed the death of this saint is not only precious in the sight of God it is precious in the sight of the whole company of heaven and those of us in this vale of tears. The death of Maximilan Kolbe shocks us, moves us and brings us to kneel in front of God with thanksgiving. The death of Maximilian Maria Kolbe is Easter Sunday with all its power made present once again.

Raymond Kolbe was born on January 7th, 1894 in the Russian occupied part of Poland. He was the second of three sons to a poor family. His parents worked at home as weavers. His father, Julius, later ran a religious book shop, then enlisted in Polish army and fought for independence from Russia. He was hanged by the Russians as a traitor in 1914. His mother, Marianne, later became a Benedictine nun. His brother Alphonse became a priest.
Raymond was known as a mischievous child, sometimes a trial to his parents. However, when he was twelve, around the time of his first Communion, he received a vision from the Virgin Mary that changed his life. This is what he says about it: “I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white and the other red. She asked 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”.

A year after this extraordinary event, Raymond entered the junior seminary where he excelled in mathematics and physics. For a while he wanted to join the army. Like his father and most Poles he wanted to defend his country against the oppressor but eventually he relented to the call to religious life, and became a novice in the Franciscan Conventual Order. On that day, as was custom, he changed his name indicating a new life and was to be known as Maximilian Maria. He made his life vows in Rome on All Saints Day 1914.

Maximilian studied philosophy and theology in Rome. Events in Rome influenced him. He was horrified by the anti clerical protests organised by freemasons that took place regularly in St Peter’s Square. He was impressed by the Roman devotion towards the Miraculous Medal that grew after the conversion of a certain Alphonse Ratisbonne. He saw in this medal the banner under which he could reconquest the world to Jesus with the protection of the Immaculata. With these thoughts in mind he and six friends founded the Crusade of Mary Immaculate devoted to the conversion of sinners, opposition to freemasonry, spread of the Miraculous Medal (which they wore as their habit), and devotion to Our Lady pointing the way to Christ.

At the time of the execution of his father, he was stricken with tuberculosis which nearly killed him, and left him in frail in health for the rest of his life.

Aged 24, Maximilian Maria was ordained priest in the Eternal City. From there he received his Doctorate in Theology; his insights into Marian theology echo today through their influence on Vatican II especially that of the Immaculate Mary as Image and Mother of the Church that is yet to come.

Maximilian returned to Poland to teach history in the Crakow seminary. There he began the publication of the magazine “Knight of the Immaculate” at its peak having a monthly press run of 750,000 copies. He acquired land near Warsaw where he founded a new monastery: “Niepokalanow”, the City of the Immaculate. And this apostle suffered from ill health.

Not content with his work in Poland, Maximilian and four brothers left for Japan in 1930. Within a month of their arrival, penniless and knowing no Japanese, Maximilian was printing a Japanese version of the Knight to a circulation of 65,000. Kolbe founded a monastery in Nagasaki comparable to Niepokalanow. It survived the war, including the nuclear bombing, and serves today as a centre of Franciscan work in Japan.

Poor health forced him to curtail his missionary work and return to Poland where he started a radio station. The new monastery housed a religious community of 800 men, the largest in the world in its day, and was completely self-sufficient including medical facilities and a fire brigade staffed by the friars. Now there’s a scene a fireman who can also administer the last rites.

Following the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, Kolbe was arrested with several of his brothers for three months. On their release the brothers housed 3,000 Polish refugees, two-thirds of whom were Jewish, and continued their publication work, including materials considered anti-Nazi. For this work the presses were shut down, the congregation suppressed, the brothers dispersed, and Maximilian was imprisoned in Pawiak prison in February 1941. Three months later Maximilian Maria was transferred to Auschwitz and branded as prisoner 16670. He was assigned to a special work group staffed by priests and supervised by especially vicious and abusive guards. His calm dedication to the faith brought him the worst jobs available, and more beatings than anyone else. At one point he was beaten and left for dead. The prisoners managed to smuggle him into the camp hospital where he spent his recovery time hearing confessions. When he returned to the camp, Maximilian ministered to other prisoners, including conducting Mass and delivering communion using smuggled bread and wine.

In July 1941 there was an escape from the camp. Commandant Fritsch told the men that ten would die in place of the one that had escaped. The guard called out the names. One man Francis Gajowniczek begged to be spared worried about his family on the outside who would not survive without him. Father Kolbe silently stepped forward the commandant asked, "What does this Polish pig want?" Father Kolbe pointed to the polish sergeant, saying, "I am a Catholic priest from Poland; I would like to take his place, because he has a wife and children."

The commandant stood silent for a moment then he consented. Fr Kolbe was sent to the starvation chamber. The interpreter for this bunker was so impressed by Father Kolbe's heroic actions that he kept an exact record of his last days.

Earlier this month Fr Philip North was preaching here for the Walsingham Festival and recounted his experience of his visit to Auschwitz. Those of you who were here remember how he could not sleep for some nights after the visit. So many years later the phantom of such evil was still present, the grey concrete steps an image which Fr North could not shake away. Imagine what that place was like in 1941. And yet from the midst of such concentrated hatred and evil the Apostle of the Immaculate Virgin Mary triumphs, hatred is destroyed by this act of pure love, this is the beginning of the end for the camp, how can the Evil One remain present in front of such love. As was sung in tonight’s anthem: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for thou art with me.” Maximilian Kolbe made Easter present in the dark, bleak tomb of Nazi hatred.

Each day the guards would remove the bodies of those who had died. The sounds of screaming and crying were not heard from the starvation bunker. Instead, the sounds of Father Kolbe leading the Rosary and singing hymns to the Immaculata with the other prisoners could be heard. While the guards were away, the interpreter would go into the bunker to speak with and console the prisoners. When Father Kolbe could no longer speak from his hunger and lack of energy, he would whisper his prayers.

After two weeks the cell had to be cleared out for more prisoners. Only four prisoners were left, including Father Kolbe. A lethal dose of acid was injected into each prisoner. Father Kolbe was the last prisoner to be killed. As the guard came Kolbe asked what day it was. The 14th of August 1941 was the reply. Kolbe cried with joy, it was the eve of the Assumption into heaven of his Immaculata. On that day Father Kolbe was martyred. On the day of the Assumption his body was cremated and his ashes scattered. After a glorious life came a triumphant martyrdom.

In his rule of life Maximilian wrote: It is my duty to be a saint and a great saint, for the glory of God, I must save myself and all souls, present and future.” This was the driving force of his life, what’s wrong if we make it ours too?

Like St Maximilian Maria Kolbe let us also be apostles spreading the good news of Christ, under the help of Mary, with all our means but above all let us destroy the darkness of Evil with the Eternal Light and Absolute Power of Love.