Monday, July 28, 2014

Saints: Role Models for Men- St. Maximilian Kolbe


Today's post may be short, but that does not mean there is any less significance or importance to the life and work of St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest and monk. He is a modern saint for good reasons.

Devotion and Evangelization

St. Maximilian Kolbe had a deep devotion to Mary. He even named a society he founded the Militia of the Immaculata. Then he established a magazine Knight of the Immaculata as an extension of the militia. The aim of the society and the magazine was to evangelize to as many people as possible in order to combat evil. He created houses for his society to work in, one in Poland and the other in Japan. He was a traveler who had a mission that he pursued each day.

Devotion and Imprisonment

St. Maximilian Kolbe lived and worked during the rise of the Nazis and the start of the second World War. Kolbe, along with his Franciscan brothers, was arrested and put in a concentration camp. One time, a prisoner escaped the camp and as punishment, the Nazis gathered a group of men together and picked ten of them to die in a starvation bunker.

 St. Maximilian Kolbe volunteered himself after a man, who had a wife and children, pleaded for his life to be spared. He went to the bunker with the nine other men and led them through song and prayer. In their final moments, Kolbe evangelized and did what he could to aid the men around him.

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