The Martyrdom of St. Maximilian Kolbe
One
Maximilian Kolbe’s martyrdom
In 1936, St. Maximilian Kolbe was recalled to Poland, leaving Japan for the last time. World War Two broke out on September first, 1939 when Hitler invaded Poland.
On September fifth, almost all the Franciscans were ordered to leave the monastery. Before letting them leave for unknown destinations, some leaving for exile, others leaving for prison or death, Maximilian Kolbe said to them, “Do not forget love.”
On September twelfth, 1939, the City of Mary was occupied by the Nazis. On September nineteenth, the SS men came to arrest Kolbe and the remaining Franciscans.
To the frightened brothers, Kolbe said, “Courage, my sons. Don’t you see that we are leaving on a mission? They pay our fare in the bargain. What a piece of good luck! The thing to do now is to pray well in order to win as many souls as possible. Let us, then, tell the Blessed Virgin that we are content and that she can do with us anything she wishes.”
Two
Amtitz
They were taken to the concentration camp Amtitz.
Kolbe showed no fear of the Nazis. He tried to speak to them of the state of their soul. He even distributed the Miraculous Medal. Then, on December eighth, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, for some unknown reason Kolbe and the brothers were set free.
Mary was showing them that even in the midst of this trial, God was with them. Mary was with them. Everything was in Their hands. God works all things for good.
They went back to the City of Mary and they turned it into a refugee camp, caring for over four-thousand people, of which fifteen hundred were Jews.
In early 1941, Kolbe printed the last edition of the Knight of Mary:
“No one in the world can change truth. What we can do and should do is seek truth and serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?”
At about 11:00 A.M. on February seventeenth, 1941, the Nazis came again to arrest Kolbe. He greeted them with, “Praised be Jesus Christ.”
Taken to Paviak prison in Warsaw, an eye-witness tells us that an SS guard, seeing Kolbe in his habit girdled with a rosary, and at the sight of the Crucifix, the guard became enraged.
The guard said, “Do you believe in Christ?”
Kolbe responded, “Yes I do believe.” and the guard struck Kolbe in the face.
“Do you still believe?”
“Yes, I do believe.”
The guard struck him so violently that he knocked Kolbe down.
“And you still believe in that?”
“Yes, I do believe!”
The guard beat Kolbe senseless
When one of the eyewitnesses began to threaten the guard, Kolbe turned to him and said, “Please do not get excited, for you have plenty of troubles of your own. What happened is not important because it is all for the Immaculate Mother.”
Three
On May twenty-eight, 1941, Fr. Maximilian was taken to Auschwitz.
In Auschwitz, the rule was every man for himself – survival of the fittest. But Kolbe lived sacrificial love. He seemed never to think of himself.
When food was brought in everyone struggled to get his place, to be sure of a share. Fr. Maximilian stood aside so that frequently there was none left for him.
He was once asked whether such self-denial made sense in a place where every man was engaged in a struggle for survival, and he answered, "Every man has an aim in life. For most men, it is to return home to their wives and families, or to their mothers. For my part, I give my life for the good of all men."
Four
Prisoners recounted that they would come to Kolbe with their fears, “Father, I can’t endure this place any longer.”
He would say, “Place yourself under the protection of Mary just as a child trustingly holds his mother’s hand, so you, too, must be calm and peaceful, for the Virgin Mary has you under her protection.”
Kolbe had to urge his fellow prisoners to ward off hatred.
Hatred is not a creative force. Love alone creates. Suffering will not prevail over us, it will only melt us down and strengthen us.
Then came the last act in the drama.
In July of 1941, a prisoner escaped. As a deterrent to further escape attempts, the commandant ordered that for every escapee, ten co-prisoners would die.
The guard Fritsch lined up all of the prisoners and picked ten men at random to be placed in the starvation bunker.
Five
Kolbe was not chosen. When the last man was picked for execution, he began to cry, "Oh, my poor wife, my poor children. I shall never see them again."
It was then that the unexpected happened. Kolbe stepped out of the ranks, approached the guard, and requested to take the place of the married man, Franciszek Gajowniczek.
The guard asked, “Why?”
“I am a Catholic Priest,” Kolbe answered.
The guard consented gladly to the exchange for the opportunity to kill a priest and Kolbe joined the others in the starvation bunker.
As each day passed, Kolbe encouraged and consoled his dying comrades.
Finally, on August fourteenth, they gave him a lethal injection and he died.
The next day he was cremated and his ashes ascended to heaven on August fifteenth, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.
The Nazis created the evil of Auschwitz. God and St. Maximilian Kolbe transformed this evil and suffering into the triumph of love.
Jesus said, “Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.”
St. Maximilian Kolbe’s love was brought to perfection through the evil of the death camp where he laid down his life for another man.
Kolbe belonged entirely to Mary as Her little child, as her property, possession, and instrument.
If God and Mary had allowed him into this situation then it was for his transformation in love and the salvation of souls. This trust made Kolbe free, calm, and peaceful. He possessed a deep joy that allowed him to give himself for others.
Kolbe was the freest man in the camp.
Kolbe was a light in the midst of darkness.
He radiated light.
The demands for his beatification became insistent, and at last on the twelfth of August, 1947 proceedings started.
Seventy-five witnesses were questioned.
"Greater love hath no man than this ..." were the opening words of the papal decree introducing the process of beatification.
Pope Paul VI beatified Kolbe, declaring he was a “Confessor of the Faith”.
When John Paul II declared Kolbe a saint in 1982, he declared him a martyr.
Never in the history of the Church has there been a change in the category between beatification and canonization.
There are two crowns: the proclamation of a confessor of the Faith is celebrated in white and that of the martyr in red.