Maximillian Kolbe

 

 

Saint Maximilian Kolbe was born  in Zdunska Wola, Poland on January 8, 1894.  In seminary he and other seminarians founded a group dedicated to Mary Immaculate called “Knights of the Immaculate.” After Kolbe’s priestly ordination, this group published a newspaper and magazine. They also operated a radio station that was very influential in fostering devotion to Mary and opposing the rise of the Nazi regime.  In 1933, Kolbe lived at Niepokalanów (Niepokalanów  is a Roman Catholic monastery and religious community in Teresin Poland) and he and his community had become increasingly more critical of the Germans and the Nazi regime. He and the Niepokalanów community worked to establish a hospital and took in many refugees from Poland including about 2,000 Jews whom the community hid from Nazi detection.

On February 19, 1941, the Germans shut down Niepokolanow and took the community, the refugees and also Kolbe prisoner.  They were all transported to Auschwitz. During the time Kolbe was at Auschwitz, there was a prisoner who succeeded in escaping the camp, which caused a great deal of anger and retribution from the Nazi commandant of Auschwitz.  To further threaten the prisoners and deter them from trying to also escape, this commandant selected ten men from among the prisoners to go into a starvation bunker in the center of Auschwitz, where they would be seen by the other prisoners as they slowly starved to death.  One of the men selected wailed about his wife and children being wittness to his starvation as they too were at Auschwitz.  Fr. Kolbe stepped up to the commandant and stated he would take the place of the man with a family. Upon learning that Kolbe was a Catholic priest, the commandant was quite eager to send him to the bunker and allowed the other man to return to the main body of prisoners at Auschwitz. 

While in the starvation bunker Kolbe ministered to the other prisoners, praying with them, and helping them prepare them for death. On August 14, the Nazi's presumed all would be dead after weeks of starvation.   Soldiers entered the bunker to remove the moldering bodies.  They were shocked, when they came to Kolbe's body that he was still breathing weakly.  To kill him, they injected a large quantity of carbolic acid into his body, and he died shortly thereafter. His body and those of his fellow cellmates were cremated the next day, August 15, which in the Catholic Church is the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.

Maximilian Kolbe was canonized as a confessor and “martyr of charity” by St. John Paul II on October 10, 1982. His feast day is the day of his death, August 14. The man whose place Kolbe took in the starvation bunker, Franciszek Gajowniczek, was present at his canonization.

In the image above, Kolbe is on the left, and Gagowniczek (later in life) is on the right.  

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The above encapsulates what I have been able to learn in the last ~18 hours or so since I left Mass last evening.  Yesterday was "All Saints Day" in the Roman Catholic faith.  Because of the long work day and extreme busyness of work yesterday, I needed to find a Mass that occurred later in the day.  The diocesan Cathedral (quite a ways away) had a 6:00pm Mass, which I thought we could get to in time yesterday.  My wife and I had to drive very rapidly and I had to work considerably throughout the day to compress things at work into a more compact form, but we arrived at the parking lot, and we both jumped out of her car and made it into the entryway of the church just as the opening hymm of Mass was starting.  

One of the nice things at this Mass of the many, was a bit of a surprise.  One of the cathedral groups had worked on putting together a basket with small cards in it of a large array of recognized saints.  We were encouraged at the end of Mass to each take a card, open it,  and then spend some time learning about the particular saint you had selected.  As you can guess, my card had Maximillian Kolbe on it.  Although I recognized his name, I really knew nothing about him and his journey.  I am very happy to have picked the card containing his name.  

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Some folks are extremely negative regarding the idea of saints in the Catholic Church.  In my opinion, this negativity is because these folks misunderstand the role/significance of saints in the Catholic Church, or are just generally anti-Catholic overall.   The roles of a Catholic saints today is to act as a mentors and example of how to live faith as a Catholic. Since saints are presumed to be in heaven, many Catholics will pray for saints to intercede on their behalf for various reasons. It is an extreme misconception that many folks have that Catholics worship saints.  No person who is a practicing Catholic worships any saints.  

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• As mentioned, yesterday was so jam-packed with doing things and trying to fit all the needed tasks into the day, that I did not have a single moment to write here.  And, I did not have a single moment to eat all day until after Mass.  
• Part of the "jam-packed" nature of yesterday was that six months ago, I had idiotically scheduled my dental cleaning for 7:50am on November 1st.  And, to make matters worse, I had completely forgotten about the damnable appointment.  It was not until late Tuesday evening when I happened to glance at the answering machine attached to the kitchen phone and saw the damnable blinking light.  On the recording was a reminder of my 7:50am appointment for Wednesday morning.  
• Yes, I cussed (audibly too) when I heard that message.  It meant that I had to head upstairs to begin my "super cleaning event" of my chompers that I always do in an effort to dissuade the hygenist or dentist from having to stay at that hell hole any longer than possible.  It also brought back memories of my having to refrain from my beautiful pipes when I went to bed the evening before the damn appointment so as to not receive admonishments about smoking a pipe.  Both thoughts put me in a sour mood.  
• Fortunately, my teeth cleaning regime (my daily regime, not just the "super cleaning event") resulted in my receiving a clean bill of health for my chompers.  The hygenist remarked that my teeth were so clean and free of tartar that she had to hardly do anything at all.  She also commented that she thought my rather heavy and robust beard was rather "stylish".  That made me grin.  But, when the dentist came in, he did his normal peering in my mouth and grabbing and moving about my tongue to look for abnormalities.  Finding nothing, he then began to grope around my neck region with his hands, working up to my jawline, looking for "lumps" or other potential "problems".  Finding nothing of the sort, he then dismissed me saying I was doing a good job with my teeth, especially considering my TMJ.  Of course, when I saw the mirror near the exit of the waiting room.... I no longer looked like a genteel, "well-groomed" professorial sort as seemed to be the hygenist's suggestion..... but instead looked like a disheveled mess due to the dentist groping my neck and jawline.... it seemed I now looked more akin to this:

• Ran my 10 miles yesterday two parts..... first some in the morning, starting at 6:00am at the track.  Then I went to the dentist and two of my classes.  Then I high tailed it over the the U Gym & Track and finished running to GET TO 10 miles for the day.  Then I went back to more classes. 
• I am going to go running now, as by the time I got to bed last night.... I ended up getting less sleep than usual.  I WAS SO TIRED this morning, that I gave up on running.  I have to make that up now.  
• Other than when I was drifting off to sleep, did I have a chance to think about beautiful pipes and pipe tobaccos.  And, as I was so tired already, I barely started working through one of those exceptionally pleasant memories before I was fast asleep.

PipeTobacco