Who is maximilian kolbe and what did he do

The news quickly spread all round the camp. It was the first and the last time that such an incident happened in the whole history of Auschwitz. The men were led away to the underground bunker where they were to be starved to death. It is said that in the bunker, Kolbe would lead the men in prayer and singing hymns to Mary.

When the guards checked the cell, Kolbe could be seen praying in the middle. Bruno Borgowiec, a Polish prisoner who was charged with serving the prisoner later gave a report of what he saw:.

From the underground cell in which they were shut up there continually arose the echo of prayers and canticles. The man in charge of emptying the buckets of urine found them always empty. Thirst drove the prisoners to drink the contents. Since they had grown very weak, prayers were now only whispered. At every inspection, when almost all the others were now lying on the floor, Father Kolbe was seen kneeling or standing in the centre as he looked cheerfully in the face of the SS men.

Father Kolbe never asked for anything and did not complain, rather he encouraged the others, saying that the fugitive might be found and then they would all be freed. One of the SS guards remarked: this priest is really a great man. After two weeks, nearly all the prisoners, except Kolbe had died due to dehydration and starvation. Because the guards wanted the cell emptied, the remaining prisoners and Kolbe were executed with a lethal injection.

Those present say he calmly accepted death, lifting up his arm. His remains were unceremoniously cremated on 15 AuguSaint. The deed and courage of Maximillian Kolbe spread around the Auschwitz prisoners, offering a rare glimpse of light and human dignity in the face of extreme cruelty.

After the war, his reputation grew and he became symbolic of courageous dignity. Photo of cell where Kolbe was executed. Kolbe was beatified as Confessor of the Faith in Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. Updated 2 March Ministries Sacraments Weekly Devotion Organizations. Kolbe was first arrested in by Nazis invading Poland. Three months after his second arrest in , Kolbe made his fateful sacrifice. According to the Auschwitz Memorial, Kolbe had heard a man pleading with SS guards to let him live, after being sentenced to death by starvation.

The man said that he had a wife and children for whom he wanted to live. Kolbe heard the man and asked the guard if he could go instead. After two weeks, a few people in the cell were still alive and sentenced to lethal injection. He claimed to have a vision of the Catholic Church's most important woman. Maximilian was a ground-breaking theologian. His Marian thought re-echoes in the Marian teaching of both St.

Maximilian Kolbe. Home About the MI. MI Saints. Back Ven. Marian Consecration. Future plans called for a City in every nation with the Knight magazine published in every language. All forms of communication media, including radio, movies and even television, were to be used without limit for the work of evangelization under the mantle of Mary. Kolbe went back to Poland in , for treatment of advanced Tuburculosis, and reassumed direction of Niepokalanow — by then the largest Catholic publishing center in Poland, possibly in the world.

When the Nazis overran the country in , they eventually imprisoned Kolbe in the Auschwitz death camp, where in he offered to take the place of a man condemned to die in reprisal for an escaped prisoner.

In the process he ministered to nine others dying with him from starvation. Pope Paul VI beatified Maximilian in