Saint Maximilian Kolbe

Knight of the Immaculata

Rev. Fr. Jeremiah J. Smith

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 1951
• ISBN:
  9781618904836
• Topic: Théologie et religion
• Subtopic: Dénominations chrétiennes

The famous martyr of Auschwitz (1941) who took the place of a condemned man. Before WW II, he worked mightily to conquer the world for Christ through Mary, desiring to save all souls in the world till the End of Time! His accomplishments are incredible! Proof positive the Faith produces heroes and martyrs even in our own day!

Chapter 1

THE KOLBE FAMILY

JANUARY 8, 1894, was the birthday of Raymond Kolbe, the future Franciscan who would be known to the world as St. Maximilian Kolbe. There were four other boys in the Kolbe family, two of whom died at an early age. The other two were Francis, older than Raymond, and Joseph, the youngest in the family, who as Father Alphonse became the constant companion and co-worker of Father Maximilian.

At the time of Raymond’s birth, the family was living at Zdunska Wola, a small village near Lodz, Poland. Shortly after this Julius Kolbe, the father, a weaver by trade, moved with his family to Pabianice in search of better living conditions. However, the weaving business prospered no better there, so the Kolbes opened a delicatessen store, which for the most part was run by Mrs. Kolbe and her boys.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Kolbe were solidly religious people. In fact, Mrs. Kolbe, born Maria Dombrowska, as a young girl several years before her marriage had intended to become a nun. As it was, after their sons were well on their own, both mother and father made a pilgrimage to the famous Polish shrine at Czestochowa and there by mutual agreement made a vow of chastity at the foot of the Immaculata’s statue. It was, however, only after the First World War that Mrs. Kolbe could see her way clear to become part of a religious congregation of sisters. Until her death in March, 1946, she could still be seen begging for her community along the streets and in the offices and workshops of Krakow. Mr. Kolbe went to live with the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor Conventual, probably becoming a secular oblate. But he left for the First World War, and it seems that he was mistakenly executed as a traitor in 1917 or 1918.

Chapter 2

THE TWO CROWNS

RAYMOND’S boyhood days were not much different from those of any normal Polish youth. He was a lively boy, quick-witted and just a trifle headstrong. But his mother at one time pointed out that, of all her sons, Raymond was the most obedient, humble and submissive to her and his father. When Mr. Kolbe went off to work, she said, it was Raymond who became her little handyman, helping with the cooking, the cleaning and the many chores of the house. This son of hers, she related, distinguished himself from his two brothers even in the way he accepted punishment for some minor offense. Of his own accord he would bring the whip and bend over the chair unhesitatingly; then, after he had been chastised, he would thank his parents and would return the whip to its place.

Evidently the lad often tried the patience of his mother with his boyish pranks. On one occasion, he so grated on her nerves that she shouted in a fit of excitement: “I do not know what will become of you!”

After this incident there was a noticeable change in Raymond’s whole behavior. He seemed very different and even mysterious at times. Mother Kolbe began to wonder at this sudden transformation. She also noticed that very frequently thereafter he would slip off to the room in which the Kolbes had set up an altar of Our Lady, and there he would pray for long periods. Often she observed that when he returned from that room his eyes were red from tears.

His mother was intrigued by this. She restrained her inquisitiveness for some time, until finally she had to put the question to him squarely: “See here, Raymond, what is wrong with you? Why do you cry like a little girl?” The boy lowered his head and definitely indicated that he did not wish to answer this question. Mrs. Kolbe was not the mother to be put off so easily. She pressed the issue:

“My child,” wisely she went on, “you must tell your mother everything; do not be disobedient.”

The boy earnestly avowed that he did not intend to be disobedient. In tears and almost trembling, he went on to tell his mother: “Mama, when you said to me: ‘Raymond, I do not know what will become of you,’ it upset me very much, and so I went to ask the Blessed Virgin just what I would become. Later, at church, I asked her once again. Then she appeared to me, holding two crowns, a white one and a red one. Tenderly she looked at me and asked me which one I would choose; the white signified that I would always be pure, and the red that I would die a martyr. Then I answered the Blessed Virgin: ‘I choose both!’ She smiled and disappeared.”

Above: Mrs. Kolbe—a simple, devout woman who taught her sons to love Mary Immaculate even more than they loved her. This photo was taken in 1941.

Above: Young Raymond Kolbe in 1907.

Both mother and son looked at each other. There was a moment of silence. Then the boy went on to explain naively that thereafter when he went to church with her and his father, it seemed to him that he did not go with them, but rather with the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph!

Indeed his mother was impressed. Nor did she hesitate to believe the boy. In later years, when she told this story, she added that the radical change in him was proof enough that her son was telling the truth.

“From that day on,” she said, “he was no longer the same. Often, with beaming face, he would speak to me of martyrdom. This was his great dream.”

Chapter 3

MINOR SEMINARY AND NOVITIATE

AT the time of this episode, Raymond was just ten years old. About three years later a mission was given at Pabianice by the Franciscan Conventual Fathers. At the close of the mission one of the priests announced that his superiors had opened a minor seminary at Lwow for youths desiring to consecrate themselves to Our Lord in the Order of St. Francis.

Raymond and his elder brother Francis were delighted to hear this news, for both of them had been harboring the idea of becoming priests. Without delay, they set the proposition before their mother and father. We are not aware of the details of this incident, but we do know that their parents put no obstacles in the way of their two older sons’ becoming priests. Both boys had enough education to permit their entrance into the seminary. Francis, as the older of the two, had been given the opportunity to attend the local commercial school. Raymond was not so fortunate. He was needed at home. But with the help of the local parish priest and the neighborhood druggist, he was prepared sufficiently well to pass the second class examination at the commercial school at the same time as his brother.

Since the latter part of the eighteenth century, Poland had been divided among the countries of Prussia, Austria and Russia. Now Pabianice was located in the Russian zone; whereas the seminary was in Austrian territory. Since free passage through the zones was frowned upon and even forbidden, it was necessary for the boys to make their way secretly across the frontier. This was the first time in their lives they had ever traveled alone, but their youthful spirit of adventure and the thrill of entering a seminary goaded them on to overcome all obstacles. Fortunately, their journey was unimpeded. In short order, they found themselves at Lwow, where they were to remain for the next few years and where they were given their basic training for the priesthood.

Time passed quickly. Raymond especially, with a passion for mathematics and science, gave definite signs to his teachers that he was capable of advancing to the higher studies of philosophy and theology. But if he grew in the knowledge of the intellectual sciences, he also advanced in the wisdom of the spiritual life. His vision and love of Our Lady never left him. It was during this era that he promised to be a Knight of Our Lady—to win souls for her as a soldier on a field of battle. However, it was precisely this “fixed idea” of his that brought about the second crisis of his life.

At the time of this crisis Raymond was about sixteen. It was the day before he was to enter the novitiate and to be invested with the black habit of the Franciscan Conventual Order. The poor boy suffered a diabolic temptation, which was all the more dangerous in that it was clothed with reasons and persuasive arguments derived from a seemingly holy intention. What was this temptation?

We have seen that Raymond had consecrated his life to Our Lady; he had promised to be a soldier of Our Lady. But how? There was the temptation. He was persuaded that he could better fulfill his dedication to the Blessed Virgin by a military career than in the religious life. As a matter of fact, he even suggested this idea to Francis. Until this time his brother had been well disposed to begin his year of trial. But Raymond’s arguments were persuasive. The two boys were on the point of going to the Provincial to tell him that they did not wish to enter the Order. But Providence intervened. The doorbell of the seminary rang. In a few minutes, the Provincial called them to tell them that their mother was in the reception room waiting to visit with them. This was unexpected. She immediately explained that she had come to give them very heartening news: their younger brother, Joseph, had decided to become a religious, and as a result of this, both she and Mr. Kolbe could now also dedicate their lives to God in a religious order! What else went on in that room that day we do not know. But of this much we are certain: as soon as Mrs. Kolbe left the visiting room, both boys went to the Provincial to tell him that they wished to enter the novitiate. The following day Raymond became Friar Maximilian Kolbe.

Chapter 4

STUDIES IN ROME

ON September 11, 1911, Friar Maximilian pronounced his vows of poverty, chastity and obedience for three years in the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. A year later, his superiors, recognizing his exceptional talent, decided to send him to the Gregorian University in Rome.

Ordinarily, this honor would have delighted a seminary student. But not Friar Maximilian! It seems that already at this early date his health was not too good. Whether he had begun to show signs of the tuberculosis which he certainly had later we cannot say. At any rate he asked his Provincial to strike his name from the list of students selected for Rome, offering as a reason the possibility that his health could not stand the Italian climate. This was his own decision; that much he knew. That same night, as he lay in bed, he realized in mental agony that in this decision he was placing his own will before God’s, which had been made known to him by the desire of his Superior. “Surely,” he thought to himself, “it is better to throw myself into the hands of God and to obey blindly.” The following morning he went to the Provincial and placed the entire affair solely in his hands, stating humbly and sincerely that he was prepared to accept whatever his Superior wished. The Provincial decided that he should go to Rome, and Friar Maximilian obeyed unquestioningly! In later years, recalling this incident, Maximilian asked this question: “In truth, what would have happened if Father Provincial had decided according to my reasons? Would there have been a Knight of the Immaculata today? Would there have been such a place as the City of the Immaculata? Would we have had the good fortune of working to make known the glories of the Immaculata? Is not then the glory of obedience blind submission to the Lord?” All through his life he would show this same conscientious regard for holy obedience. It became his characteristic virtue.

Rome, too, proved to be not only a school for intellectual progress but also for his spiritual development. He had the good fortune to spend his years in Rome under the rectorship and direction of one of the most illustrious religious in the Holy City, Father Stephen Ignudi, O.F.M. Conv. As a seminarian, Friar Maximilian imbibed fully the spirituality of this truly ascetic priest. This was one of the contacts which made a life-long impression upon him. By the first of November, 1914, the young religious pronounced his solemn vows; on this occasion there was no hesitation. A year later, October 22, at the age of twenty-one, he received his doctorate in philosophy at the Gregorian University, where it is recalled that he contributed much to scientific projects. In the course of the following years at Rome, he was ordained sub-deacon in 1916, priest in 1918, and on April 29, 1918, he said his first Mass. A year later, July, 1919, Father Maximilian received his doctor’s degree in theology at the International Seraphic College of his Order.

This in brief is the history of Father Maximilian’s stay in Rome. His life there, considered externally, was the life of any devout young man studying for the priesthood. Interiorly, however, his life is the revelation of an extraordinary soul. During these years he developed fully the determination to do the will of God in all his actions and to bring all souls to Christ through the Immaculata. Nor did he intend that his relation to Christ and His Blessed Mother would be one of words only. Above all he was a man of action. His whole life would be proof of this. Later on, in his writings, he revealed how at this time he made an agreement with St. Therese the Little Flower, who was not yet canonized: “I shall pray that you may be raised to the glory of the altars, but on the condition that you will take charge of all my future conquests.” And how many were those conquests to be!

He was not for a moment hesitant or affrighted where it was a question of bringing glory to God. No obstacle was discouraging enough to deter him. One of his closest friends in Rome, Father Pal, related that Father Maximilian would on occasion rush headlong into discussion with the anti-Christian street orators in the public squares. In the course of one of these discussions, a pseudo-intellectual became angered at the way this boyish-looking religious was driving him against the wall. He thought he would frighten Maximilian by shouting, “Son, I am a doctor of philosophy!” He was immediately answered, “I am also.” The gentleman looked at the young religious in amazement and quickly began to change his tune. Then, patiently, Maximilian answered the man’s arguments and left him there abashed and astonished.

Chapter 5

THE MILITIA OF MARY IMMACULATE

BUT if we are really to appreciate this man of spiritual action, we must see him at work, organizing and founding The Militia of Mary Immaculate. In fact, this was to be the vehicle of all his future conquests for Our Lady.

The need for an organization dedicated to the Immaculata was the result of several incidents which occurred in Rome in 1917. This year saw the second centenary celebration of Freemasonry, and true to form they chose the Holy City of Rome as the theatre of sacrilegious demonstrations. In front of the Vatican, the Freemasons paraded signs which read “Satan must reign in the Vatican. The Pope will be his slave.” Scurrilous pamphlets directed against the Holy Father were distributed among the people.

Friar Maximilian, who was not yet a priest, saw all this and immediately hit upon the idea of forming an association which would combat not only these Freemasons, but also all protagonists of the devil. He knew th...