In 1927, he founded a religious community near Warsaw called Niepokalanow, or ‘the City of the Immaculata’ which, before war broke out, became the largest monastery in the world. There, Maximilian published two newspapers devoted to evangelising and providing Catholic commentary on world issues. In his newspapers, Maximilian opposed Nazism, leading to his arrest in February 1941. In May he was sent to the Auschwitz death camp as prisoner #16670.

In the death camp, many survivors witnessed the saint’s adherence to his own often-repeated principle: ‘Love without limits.’According to fellow prisoner and priest Fr Conrad Szweda, people spoke about him because he ‘held services and sometimes gives away rations.’ Maximilian Kolbe loved other people actively, and practically, in any way he could.This included his Nazi captors. He never showed anger or hatred for the Gestapo, or SS, and showed no fear. He was serene in their presence, praying for them and loving them. But Kolbe had a sense he would not leave Auschwitz. He had tuberculosis, and although he was able to bear the physical demands placed in him as well as other prisoners, he believed his time had come.

To another fellow prisoner, he said: ‘We must do a great work for God here.’When a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz in July 1941, 600 prisoners were made to stand to attention all day in stifling heat. Auschwitz Deputy-Commander Fritsch paced among the men and randomly picked to suffer death by starvation to deter others from attempting escape. One prisoner, a 35-year-old Polish sergeant named Francis Gajowniczek, began despairing, pleading to be spared for the sake of his wife and children. The Nazis ignored his cries.From the back, someone broke ranks and pushed his way to the front, itself a punishable offense.

Maximilian Kolbe approached the commander, removing his hat, and addressed the man in fluent German. ‘Herr Commandant, I wish to make a request, please.’

Commander Fritsch asked him what he wanted. ‘What do you want?’

‘I want to die in place of this prisoner,’ Maximilian Kolbe replied without hesitation. He explained he was older than the man sentenced to die – 47 years old – and of less use to the Nazis.

According to witnesses, the Deputy-Commander Fritsch seemed taken aback. ‘Who are you?’

‘A Catholic priest,’ Kolbe said.

The commander considered this for a moment before replying: ‘Request granted.’ Francis Gajowniczek was ordered to return to the ranks.

Years later, Gajowniczek recalled the moment his life was gifted back to him: ‘I could only try to thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me — a stranger. Is this some dream or reality?’

Maximilian Kolbe had spontaneously offered his own life to save another and it sent shockwaves through the camp. A fellow Auschwitz prisoner, George Bielecki, described the effect of Kolbe’s sacrifice:

"We became aware someone among us in this spiritual dark night of the soul was raising the standard of love on high. Someone unknown, like everyone else, tortured and bereft of name and social standing, went to a horrible death for the sake of someone not even related to him. Therefore it is not true, we cried, that humanity is cast down and trampled in the mud, overcome by oppressors, and overwhelmed by hopelessness … To say that Father Kolbe died for one of us or for that person’s family is too great a simplification. His death was the salvation of thousands … That’s how we felt about it. That was a shock full of optimism, regenerating and giving strength; we were stunned by his act, which became for us a mighty explosion of light in the dark camp night."

Maximilian Kolbe and nine others were taken to the starvation bunker to die a slow death.In the starvation cells, Maximilian Kolbe led fellow prisoners in prayer and song. Nazi guards remarked that it sounded more like a church service than a death cell.After two weeks of dehydration and starvation, Kolbe was the last of the group of the ten to remain alive. The guards gave him a lethal injection of carbolic acid. A fellow prisoner, Bruno Borgowiec, says ‘I saw Father Kolbe, in the middle of a prayer, willingly hold out his arm to the executioner.’

Maximilian Kolbe died on 14 August.

Cela ¶mierci o. Kolbego

Later, fellow prisoner Francis Wlodarski noted, ‘No similar event ever took place at Auschwitz before or after, nor did I ever hear of anything like it in the other concentration camps. He was the only one among us capable of such a heroic deed.’ Wlodarski also reported hearing one of the SS guards share this sense of wonder: So einen wie diesen Pfarrer haben wir hier noch nicht gehabt. Das muss ein ganz aussergewöhnlicher Mensch sein. (‘We have never had a priest here like this one. He must be a wholly exceptional man.’)

Today, the cell where he died is a shrine.

‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.’ John 15:13. These were the opening words of the papal decree introducing the beatification of St Maximilian Kolbe.

Maximilian Kolbe was beatified as Confessor by Paul VI in 1970, and canonized as Martyr by Pope John Paul II in 1982. Franciszek Gajowniczek attended his canonization.

St Maximillian is the patron saint of families, prisoners, journalists, political prisoners, drug addicts and the pro-life movement. St John Paul II declared him to be ‘the patron saint of our difficult century.’ He is among twenty modern martyrs who have been honoured with a statue on the façade of Westminster Abbey. He stands above the west door, alongside Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr. and others.

For us, in demonstrating such selflessness and compassion St Maximilian is an image of Jesus. By learning about his life, we learn about the divine life that inspired his.

St Maximilian Kolbe practised non-violence and love in circumstances of exceptional cruelty: with Nazis, in their most lethal extermination camp; a place where loving one’s enemies should have been all but impossible. Into this place where human evil was most visible, Kolbe brought kindness. Into circumstances where it was most difficult to love, he loved abundantly. Into the lives of prisoners, and even Nazi extermination camp soldiers whom St Maximilian believed were still ‘children of God’, he brought unconditional grace and tenderness.

He encouraged fellow prisoners to not give up hope, to stay firm in their faith and trust in the Immaculata, as he referred to Mary. Former prisoner Conrad Szweda recalls Maximilian Kolbe saying to him: ‘Take Christ’s hand in one of yours and Mary’s in the other. Now even if you are in darkness you can go forward with the confidence of a child guided by its parents …’

St Maximilian demonstrates how to perfectly love the stranger as ourselves, to place the wellbeing of others above our own. And to know that Jesus means hope without end, especially to those whose hopes have been eroded by human evil and injustice.

St Maximilian Kolbe made the ultimate sacrifice. But according to the saint: ‘the deadliest poison of our time is indifference.’ We can learn from St Maximilian by demonstrating our caring in smaller, ordinary gestures. We can treat someone with compassion and kindness when it would be easier to do nothing. These don’t have to be big or bold statements, they could be any small thing where we act in a way that bypasses our indifference and moves into a place of grace, kindness and love. In small ways we are called to take the place of those suffering, of outsiders marked for contempt, and bring them to love, light and life.

St Maximilian Kolbe writes: ‘We need to love our neighbour not just because he is pleasant or helpful or rich and influential or even because he shows us gratitude. These motives are too self-serving, unworthy of our Lady’s Knights. Genuine love rises above creatures and soars up to God. In him, by him, and through him it loves all men, both good and wicked, friends and enemies. To all it stretches out a hand filled with love; it prays for all, suffers for all, wishes what is best for all, desires happiness for all—because that is what God wants.’

Source melbournecatholic.org.au