The Militia Immaculatae was founded by St Maximilian Kolbe after he witnessed demonstrations in Rome against Popes St Pius X and Benedict XV. St Maximilian's saw the Militia Immaculatae as a "global vision of Catholic life in a new form, consisting of the link with Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, universal mediatrix with Jesus."He stressed consecration to Mary as a "transformation into her" with the external manifestation particularly of catechesis and mission.
St Maximilian founded a monastery in Japan on the outskirts of Nagasaki. Fortunately, he ignored the Feng Shui experts and built his monastery on the opposite side of the mountain from that advised. Consequently, it survived the atomic bomb.
After his arrest in 1941, he was sent to the Pawiak prison. An SS guard asked him if he believed in Christ. Kolbe replied "I do" and the guard struck him. He asked him many times and, receiving the same answer, continued to beat him. After his transfer to Auschwitz, he was assigned, with other priests, the labour of cutting down trees and carrying heavy planks at a run. On one occasion, he was loaded with planks, ordered to run and, when he fell, was kicked in the stomach and face and then given 50 lashes. His consolation under these beatings was to say "Mary gives me strength. All will be well." He used to stand aside from the food queue so that others could get their ration, sometimes leaving none for him. The food he had, he shared.
As is well-known, he volunteered to take the place of Franciszek Gajowniczek, who had been picked out for execution and cried out that he had a family. St Maximilian is reported to have said
"I am a Catholic priest from Poland; I would like to take his place, because he has a wife and children."He was put in a cell with 9 others, to be killed slowly by dehydration and starvation, all the time leading his fellow prisoners in praying the rosary and singing hymns. After two weeks six of the others had died. St Maximilian was still to be found kneeling or standing, smiling cheerfully at the SS men who came to check. He and three of his fellow-prisoners were finished off by their tormentors with an injection of carbolic acid. His heroism gave new heart to others. A survivor, Jerzy Bielecki said that Father Kolbe's death was
"a shock filled with hope, bringing new life and strength ... It was like a powerful shaft of light in the darkness of the camp."Franciszek Gajowniczek returned to Auschwitz every year on this day to honour the memory of Fr Kolbe and was present at his beatification in 1971 and his canonisation in 1982.
As well as St Maximilian, St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) and St Titus Brandsma, there were many other Catholic heroes of the holocaust. Jewish people respect their sacrifice too, as well as the "righteous gentiles" such as Pope Pius XII who helped to save so many Jewish lives.
16 comments:
Thank you for posting this one. Fr. Kolbe is one of my favorites.
One of the nicest things about JPII was that he canonized so many, acknowledging in a formal way that in all times people are called on to be saints, if not martyrs.
Karen H. -- San Diego, Ca.
Another wonderful thing about Kolbe was that he was a visionary in the use of the mass media for evangelization long before Mother Angelica. His friary published a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine of 1 million (this was in the 1930s!) He started up a shortwave station and planned to create a film studio.
Would we be as zealous to share the Gospel.
Thanks for this post; St Maximilian Kolbe is just about the only Saint covered in the Edexcel GCSE RE syllabus my high school followed!
While in Lourdes last month I took the opportunity to visit the small exhibition dedicated to Maximilian Kolbe; very inspiring and informative!
I don't know that Pius XII has been oficially proclaimed a 'righteous gentile' and I have heard it said that some of St Maximilian Kilbe's writings were anti semitic. If you have any information about these two points I would be glad to read it so that I can reply to their detractors.
Sharon
St Maximilian's martyrdom is truly inspiring. He was also a pioneer in the use of the print and radio media to spread the Gospel. http://www.catholic-pages.com/saints/st_maximilian.asp is one source of information about this. He certainly would have used the internet had he been around today and probably would have been a blogger.
Bacolod City, Philippines
i just love St Maximilian Kolbe!What an inspiration..
Anon - On Pius XII, see this Catholic League article. Not sure if that means he was "officially proclaimed" a righteous gentile but being called one by two prime ministers of Israel etc. is enough to apply the term to him as something that "Jewish people" say. (I left out the definite article deliberately.)
On Maximilian Kolbe and alleged anti-semitism, see this article from Immaculata.
Fr Sean & Nancy - thank you for drawing attention to this aspect of St Maximilian's work. Yes, I'm sure he would have been a blogger :-)
It is astounding what courage and defense of the truth emerged from the Nazi tyranny. In addition to St Maximilian Kolbe, St Titus Brandsma and Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, there was also the Jesuit, St Rupert Meyer. Though not a martyr, his preaching and writing against Nazism before and in the early years of the war put him under house arrest. The Nazis were afraid of killing him because of the love and respect in which he was held. He died, an ill and broken man, soon after his release at the end of the war and his tomb in Munich is never without people praying.
Many years ago I read that a tree had been planted in honour of Pope Pius XII as a righteous gentile at Yad Vishem because of the thousands of Jews he had saved during the Second World War. Then came 'The Representative' and the Soviet campaign to tarnish his memory by accusing him of appeasement and collaboration with Germany. When I went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land some years ago and was taken to see Yad Vishem I asked to see his tree but the request was met with horror and incredulity by the Jewish guide. Can you shed any light on this? If anybody deserves to be commemorated there it is him. The Holy See saved so many jews that the chief rabbi in Rome was, as is well known, converted and became a priest.
I can't reach the biography where it's recorded (I think it's Diana Dewar's but I have several): however, I do remember that St M., while in Japan, wrote a letter reprimanding the friar who'd been left in charge of the newspaper for publishing a very anti-Semitic piece.
I'm Jewish (Catholic, now, for nine years), and St Maximilian is one of my heroes.
St Max's fight against Freemasonry is fascinating and not widely appreciated. When he formed the Knights of the Immaculata he didn`t fully realize what it was for at the time. The picture became clearer many years later as he writes in 1917, upon seeing a convention of freemasons gethering in Rome. They were, according to St Max's own account "noisily celebrating their second centenary with bold demonstrations in the streets, prolcaiming the coming destruction of the church." These crystallized in the young student friar`s mind what exactly the Immaculata wanted him to fight for, as he explains in an article written in 1939:"Before WW1, in Rome, the capital city of Christian life, the secret society of the Freemasons was growing daily more aggresssive, in spite of the fact that the Popes very often exposed and condemned it. These Freemasons were not even afraid to march around on Giordano Bruno's anniversary, carrying black banners depicting the Archangel Michael being trodden underfoot by Satanic Lucifer, as he is called, or to flaunt masonic insignia beneath the very windows of the Vatican. Some enraged hands dared to write such slogans as "Satan will rule on vatican Hill, and the Pope will serve as his errand boy" and other such insults. Now, these unreasoning acts of hatred towards the Church of Christ and His temporal Vicar were not the inept rantings of a few individual psychopaths, but the manner, way and plan of action deduced from the masonic rule: destroy all teaching about God, especially Catholic teaching." Source: "Freemasonry, Mankind's hidden enemy, with current official Catholic statements, by Bro. Charles Madden, published by TAN books." I have four spare copies if anyone would like one free.
Be in no doubt, St Max was not fighting against a bunch of fund-raising business men.
Gretel - "The Representative" itself has recently been exposed as a KGB initiative to discredit Pope Pius XII. See the links at KGB plotted to discredit Pius XII.
Sadly, a lot of damage has been done. Cornwell didn't help (to say the least) with his populist attack and the disgraceful cover. He has recently written in a letter to the Catholic Herald explaining that the cover was a mistake, you see...
I hadn't realised that St Maximillian earned his canonisation so comprehensively even before his arrest. I thought it was only for his heroic martyrdom. He was clearly an all round inspiration which accounts for his arrest.
Regarding the freemasons, I am sometimes asked abotu them from the perspective of UK freemasonry.
My understanding is that mainland europe freemasonry is somewhat occult linked whereas the UK branch is in the main a somewhat eccentric cross between a so called gentlemans club and a secret trade union but nonetheless has quasi religious aspects to its rituals
Certainly a former neighbour of mine who revealed his membership (I think as a prelude to trying to recruit me) didn't appear particularly occultish
Personally I don't really like the thought of all male secret societies, it all seems rather immature
Could someone explain further.
Paul - a good place to start finding out more might be the recently published little CTS booklet on Freemasonry. Longer Bibliog. in the back if you want more. Cardinal Ratzingers statements from 20 years ago also helpful. Glad your neighbour didn`t appear occultish. Thats the whole point.
Yes, I have read the text of, but not actually seen performed, 'The Representative' and knew that it had been disclosed as part of a KGB plot. It is a detestable play but powerful enough to adversely influence a secularist, non-Catholic audience. It clearly did lasting damage for a considerable period of time and achieved the KGB's aims. But can you tell me where I can discover if Pope Pius XII has, or ever had, a tree planted at Yad Vishem? I am sure I read somewhere that at some period one existed. If so, I hope it still exists; if not, I hope one will be planted because he deservs to be commemorated as one of the Righteous Gentiles.
Some time in l980's Pope John Paul beatified 44 Polish Priests who died in Dachau camp near Munich. Of course Titus Brandsma died at Dachau also. I mention this because in general all priests imprisoned by the Germans because of their views ended up at Dachau and by the end of the war there were over 2000 priests there. Many died of malnutrition disease and overwork (it was a labour camp).
The Germans did all the priests to have a chapel by l942 and it had room for 800. The Carmelites have built a small scale reproduction of this hut church at one end of the camp. Our pilgrimage had Mass there in January.
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