Saint of the day: 14th August. Saint Maximilian Kolbe Franciscan priest and martyr. A patron saint of journalists. Maximilian was born near Lodz in Poland, in 1894, while the country was under Russian rule. His parents were Franciscan tertiaries. He joined the junior seminary in 1907 and entered the Franciscans in 1910. Both his parents then became religious. His father was hanged by the Russians in 1914, aged 43. Maximilian studied in Rome. In 1919 he returned to Poland, where, in spite of suffering from tuberculosis, he taught in a seminary and set up a Catholic newspaper. He also established a Franciscan community at Niepokalanow which combined a life of prayer, cheerfulness and poverty, with modern technology. They produced a number of weekly and daily publications which had circulations of over 45,000. During the 1930s he started another community in Nagasaki, Japan, which also produced publications. He was recalled to Poland in 1936, by which time there were 762 friars in his community. When the Nazis invaded, Niepokalanow became a refugee camp, housing more than 4,500 Jewish and Polish people. The newspapers continued, taking a independent line, critical of Hitlers regime. Maximilian was arrested as a journalist, publisher and intellectual. Together with four companions, he was taken to Auszwitz in May 1941. Maximilian did forced labour, moving logs speeded by kicks and lashes. He continued his ministry, hearing confessions and smuggling in bread and wine for the Eucharist. He was noted for his compassion to those in an even worse state than himself. One day, he swapped places with a man called Francis Gajnowiczek who was going to be executed. He said: I am a Catholic priest. I wish to die for that man. I am old. He has a wife and children. Maximilian was sent to cell 18 with a group to be starved to death. He prayed with them and recited psalms. After two weeks only four were still alive and he was the only one conscious. He was executed with an injection of phenol and died on this day, aged 47. Maximilian Kolbe was beatified on 1971 and canonised in 1982 by Pope John Paul II, former Archbishop of Krakow, which is near Auschwitz. Francis Gajnowiczek attended the ceremony.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 05:43:25 +0000
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