St Maximilian Kolbe: The Remarkable Martyr to Nazis

He was a Franciscan, writer, publisher, monastery founder, missionary, and martyr of charity. The life of St Maximilian Kolbe is reviewed by Günther Simmermacher.

St Maximilian at a glance

Name at birth: Rajmund Kolbe
Born:  January 8, 1894, in Zduńska Wola, Russian Empire (now Poland)
Died: August 14, 1941 at Auschwitz-Birkenau, German-occupied Poland
Beatified: 1971
Canonised: 1982
Feast: August 14
Patronages: Families, drug addiction recovery, prisoners, political prisoners, journalists, amateur radio operators, pro-life movement

The great Polish saint

Maximilian Kolbe is mostly remembered for his martyrdom to the inhumanity of Nazism at Auschwitz concentration camp. Indeed, the heroism of that martyrdom — Fr Kolbe volunteered to give his life so that a family father could live — is the defining culmination of his most remarkable life.

Maximilian was born as Rajmund Kolbe on January 8, 1894 at Zdunska Wola near Lodz in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. He was the second son of a poor weaver and a midwife. His parents, Juliusz (an ethnic German, hence the surname) and Maria, were devout Catholics with a particular devotion to Our Lady, which they passed on to their children.

As a 12-year-old the future saint had a Marian vision. Having been reprimanded for naughty behaviour that day, he prayed to Our Lady. Kolbe later recalled the event: “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.”

Military or Franciscans?

Young Rajmund and his older brother Franciszek were educated at a Franciscan seminary school, but Rajmund’s interest initially resided in the military, and his attendant Polish patriotism and mind for strategy would probably have served him well. Instead he chose the priesthood as a Franciscan friar — a role, he realised early, in which his strategic mind could be applied to the things of God instead of those of death.

Rajmund entered the Franciscan order as a 16-year-old in September 1910. With the habit he also received a new name: Maximilian (or Maksymilian in the Polish spelling), to which he later added Maria, in tribute to Our Lady. From 1912-15 he studied philosophy at the Gregorian College in Rome, and from 1915-19 theology at the Collegio Serafico, as the Pontifical University of St Bonaventure is commonly known. Having made his final vows in 1914, he was ordained to the priesthood in Rome on April 28, 1918. He returned to his beloved Poland, now an independent state, the following year. By then, he had lost his father, who was hanged by the Russians as a fighter for Poland’s independence.

While studying in Rome, Maximilian had witnessed virulently anti-Catholic protests by the Freemasons, and decided to act upon these by organising the Militia Immaculata (Army of the Immaculate One). The purpose of the movement was to work for the conversion of the enemies of the Church, especially the Freemasons, through Mary’s intercession. He continued his Marian work in Poland, where he initially lectured at the seminary of Krakow.

Magazine founder

As a newly-independent state, Poland was still finding its direction. Fr Kolbe was strongly anti-communist and, obviously, devoted to the Catholic apostolate. In January 1922 he began to offer some direction by founding a monthly religious magazine titled Rycerz Niepokalanej (Knight of the Immaculata), which he based on the French devotional publication Le Messager du Coeur de Jesus. At its peak in the early 1930s, it had a circulation of 750000. To go with that project, he set up a religious publishing press in Grodno (now in Belarus) which he ran until 1926.

In 1927 Fr Kolbe turned his sights to bigger things: he founded a Franciscan monastery at a site west of Warsaw which was provided by Prince Jan Drucko-Lubecki. He first erected a Marian statue, and then led the building of the monastery which he named Niepokalanów — meaning “City of the Immaculate”. The monastery went on to become a major religious publishing centre, bringing out an influential daily newspaper (of a rather right-wing  direction), apart from the Rycerz Niepokalanej and other media. Niepokalanów also became the site of a junior seminary to accommodate a flood of vocations from across Poland.

By 1938 it was one of the biggest Franciscan friaries in the world, with more than 700 people living there. Among the 500 Brothers there were doctors, dentists, farmers, mechanics, tailors, builders, printers, gardeners, shoemakers, cooks and so on. The monastery was entirely self-sustaining, and even had its own firebrigade.

Going to Japan

By 1930 Fr Maximilian was on the move again. Having founded a Marian movement, a publishing house and a monastery, he decided to be a missionary in Asia. Asked whether he had the funding for his missionary journey, he replied: “Money? It will turn up somehow or other. Mary will see to it. It’s her business and her Son’s.” So he departed for Asia with a band of four Brothers.

They first went to Shanghai in China but failed to find a following there. Instead they tried their hand in Japan, founding a Franciscan monastery in Nagasaki where Fr Kolbe introduced a Japanese edition of the Knight of the Immaculata magazine, titled Seibo no Kishi. Fr Kolbe wisely resisted the impulse to impose Western values on the Japanese, and rather inculturated the Catholic faith with local customs. The monastery would survive the atomic bomb attack on Nagasaki in 1945 and remains an important Catholic site in Japan today.

Within a year of arriving in Nagasaki, Fr Kolbe was getting restless again: this time to go to Malabar in India. He founded another monastery there, but this one was shortlived as his Franciscan superiors recalled him to Nagasaki.

Nazi persecution

Due to poor health, Fr Kolbe returned to Niepokalanów in 1936. Two years later he founded a radio station there, aptly called Radio Niepokalanów.

But war loomed. In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, quickly capturing Warsaw. Encountering the Polish priest Fr Kolbe, the Nazis offered him protection on account of his German ancestry. Fr Kolbe refused to sign the Deutsche Volks-liste, which gave ethnic Germans rights similar to those of German citizens. Instead he was detained for 11 weeks, being released on December 8 — the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

Niepokalanów meanwhile became a refuge for 3000 people, including 2000 Jews, seeking protection from Nazi persecution. The monastery also served as a hospital.

Some critics have accused Fr Kolbe of anti-Semitism, largely because of questionable content in publications he had founded. On at least two occasions, he made anti-Semitic statements, framed within attacks of freemasonry.  But at the same time, his monastery sheltered many Jews hiding from the Nazis. His views are made clear in the report of a local Catholic who later recalled: “When Jews came to me asking for a piece of bread, I asked Fr Maximilian if I could give it to them in good conscience, and he answered me, ‘Yes, it is necessary to do this, because all men are our brothers.’” It’s a sentiment he repeated many times.

Sent to Auschwitz

Fr Kolbe had permission from the German occupiers to continue publishing strictly religious material, which he did. But the Niepokalanów printing works also secretly churned out anti-Nazi pamphlets. This came to an end on February 17, 1941. That day the Niepokalanów monastery was shut down and Fr Kolbe and four others were arrested by the Gestapo.

First imprisoned in the notorious Pawiak prison in Warsaw, where he was tortured, Fr Kolbe was transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp near Krakow on May 28 that year. There he was given the prisoner number 16670. Fr Maximilian might have worn the striped uniform of a concentration camp prisoner, but he was still a priest, and served accordingly. The Nazis tried to break his spirit with extra hard labour, brutal beatings and even whippings, but the priest could not be broken.

In late July three prisoners managed to escape from Auschwitz. This was good news for the escapees but had harsh consequences for those left behind. As a deterrent for anyone who might think of escaping, the deputy camp commander picked ten men at random to be starved to death in an underground cell. Among the ten was a 39-year-old Polish sergeant, Franciszek Gajowniczek, who in his desperation cried out: “My wife! My children!” Fr Kolbe stepped forward and asked to take the man’s place. He was permitted to do so.

Over the next days, nine of the ten prisoners starved to death or were otherwise killed by the SS. In their suffering they were led in prayer by Fr Maximilian, initially loudly and eventually in weak whispers. In the end only the priest was still alive — and he just wouldn’t die. He would be seen standing or kneeling in prayer, disconcerting the guards with his serenity.

On August 14, after two weeks of starvation, Fr Kolbe was still alive. The Nazis had had enough and put an end to his life with an injection of carbolic acid. As the guards approached with the needle, Fr Kolbe quietly raised his left arm. The Blessed Virgin’s promise of martyrdom had been fulfilled. His remains were cremated in the ovens of Auschwitz the following day: the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady.

And what became of Franciszek Gajowniczek? He survived Auschwitz and later Sachsenhausen concentration camps. After the war he reunited with his wife — but before his liberation his sons were tragically killed in Soviet bombardments. He died in 1995 at the age of 93, having attended both the beatification in 1971 and canonisation in 1982 of the man who had saved his life. He is buried in the convent cemetery of Niepokalanów.

St Maximilian Kolbe’s feast day is August 14. He is one of ten 20th-century martyrs who are depicted in statues at London’s Anglican Westminster Abbey.

Published in the August 2022 issue of The Southern Cross magazine