Dr Jeanette Pinto –
A single act of love makes the soul return to life – St. Maximilian Kolbe
He was christened Raymund Kolbe on 8 January1894 in Zdunska Wola, Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. His father was an ethnic German and his mother Polish. They were poor folk, and sadly the father was hanged in 1914 for his political lineage. At the age of 13 Raymund Kolbe and his elder brother left home to enrol in the Conventual Franciscan seminary in Lwow, in Austria-Hungary. In 1910, he was given the religious name Maximillian as an initiate, and later he took his final vows as a monk in 1914. Soon he was sent to study in Rome Italy. There he gained a doctorate in philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1915. Later in 1919 he gained a doctorate of Theology from the University of Saint Bonaventure.
Maximilian held a great devotion for Mother Mary and would organise the work of MI (Militia Immaculata). He helped the Immaculate Friars to publish pamphlets, books and a daily newspaper titled – Maly Dziennik. Besides their monthly magazine was popular among the Polish Catholics with a circulation of over 1 million. Fr. Kolbe was influential, and gained a radio licence to publicly broadcast his views on religion. He used the latest technology of those times to spread his message.
In 1930, Kolbe travelled to Japan, where he spent several years serving as a missionary. He founded a monastery on the outskirts of Nagasaki, a city where the Atom bomb was dropped. He made friends with the local Buddhist priests and held dialogues with them. Unfortunately, he became very ill and returned to Poland in 1936. During the German occupation of Poland, he remained at Niepokalanow a monastery which published a number of anti-Nazi German publications. In 1941 he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. Here under terrible circumstances, he worked as a priest and offered solace to fellow inmates.
In July of that year, three prisoners appear to have escaped from the camp. The outcome was the Deputy Commander of Auschwitz ordered ten men be chosen to be starved to death in an underground bunker. One of the unfortunate ones was Franciszek Gajowniczek, who bitterly cried out, “My wife! My children.” The Nazi commander shouted, “What does this Polish pig want?” Immediately Father Kolbe stepped forward and said, “I am a Catholic priest from Poland; I volunteer, to take his place because he has a wife and children.” Very surprised, the commander accepted Kolbe in his place.
The ten men condemned to starvation unto death suffered a horrible existence. From the underground cell there arose the echo of prayers, canticles and hymns to Mother Mary led by Father Kolbe. Thirst drove the prisoners to drink their urine. They grew very weak, prayers soon became only a whisper, and most of them lay lifeless on the floor, but Father Kolbe was seen kneeling or standing in the centre as he looked cheerfully in the face of the SS men. All this was known from a report given by Bruno Borgowiec, a Polish prisoner who was charged with supervising the prisoners.
Franciszek Gajowniczek miraculously survived. He spent five years, five months and nine days in Auschwitz. He never got to see his sons again. They were killed in 1945 during a Soviet bombardment. He reunited with his wife Helena six months later in Rawa Mazowiecka and she died in 1977. He later said, “I could only thank Kolbe 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 peaceful and voluntarily offers his life for me – a stranger. Is this some dream?”
Kolbe’s act of laying down his life and self-sacrificing love, in a spirit of serenity, surrender and peace for another human being makes him a holocaust and Pro-life hero. His courageous deed spread around the Auschwitz prisoners, offering a rare glimpse of light and human dignity in the face of extreme cruelty. Later the miracles that confirmed his beatification were the July 1948 cure of intestinal tuberculosis in Angela Testoni and in August 1950, the cure of calcification of the arteries/sclerosis of Francis Ranier; both attributed to Kolbe’s intercession by their prayers to him.
St Maximilian Kolbe was canonized as a Martyr of Charity. He is known as the patron saint of drug addicts, people with eating disorders, families, journalists, amateur radio operators, prisoners and Pro-life. Amazingly Franciszek who survived Auschwitz was present at the canonisation. Father Kolbe was beatified as Confessor of the Faith in 1971 and canonised as a martyr by Pope John Paul II in 1981. Why a martyr? The Pope decided that Kolbe be recognised as a martyr because the systematic hatred of the Nazi regime was inherently an act of hatred against religious faith. At the canonisation Pope John Paul said: “Maximilian did not die but gave his life…for his brother.”
Dr. Jeanette Pinto is a retired educator and a member of the Archdiocesan Human Life Committee, Bombay. She also leads a Church ministry for widows at her Parish. She is an author of several inspirational books and articles.
His life is and sacrifice is indeed an inspiration for all of us