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Saint Maximillian Kolbe

Maximillian Kolbe

           
"Kolbe is the patron saint of our difficult century." - Pope John Paul II Patron Saints Index Maximillian Kolbe

Quotations from Maximillian Kolbe

  • "God is love. In the fullness of this life the Father generates the Son; the Spirit however proceeds from the Father and the Son. But since God also loved the possible images of himself, he chose some of them and gave them real existence. These creatures perfect themselves by the force of reaction as it were, and so tend back to God from whom they proceed. In fact, even men endowed with free will similarly tend back to God, but to what imperfections are they not subject, and how much do they not quarrel with the Divine Will, with the Godhead? From eternity God foresaw a creature who would in no way, even in the least matter, ever swerve away from him; who would never waste any grace, or appropriate for herself any of the gifts she would receive from him. The Giver of grace, the Holy Spirit, has dwelt in her soul from the first moment of her existence. He took complete and absolute possession of her, and entered into her to such a degree that the title of Spouse of the Holy Spirit gives us only a remote, feeble, imperfect although true inkling of their relationship. " --Mary Personifies Man's Perfect Union with God

  • "Courage, my sons, Don't you see that we are leaving on a mission? They pay our fare in the bargain. What a piece of good luck! The thing to do now is to pray well in order to win as many souls as possible. Let us, then, tell the Blessed Virgin that we are content, and that she can do with us anything she wishes. " -- Patron Saints Index Maximillian Kolbe

  •      "Anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother; the Father will not send the Son to him; the Son will not come down into his soul; the Holy Spirit will not make him a member of the mystical body through the gift of his grace; because all God's marvels of grace take place in Mary Immaculate who is full of grace-and in her alone." -- Saints Kolbe, Taigi, Vianney

    Quotations about Maximillian Kolbe

  •      Come to know the Conventual Franciscan priest, publisher, evangelist and theologian. Patron of journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement and the chemically addicted. "Martyr of charity" at the hands of an atheistic Nazi ideology. Pope John Paul II has rightfully proclaimed St. Maximilian Kolbe "patron of our difficult century" and "prophet of the new era, the civilization of love." -- St. Maximilian Kolbe Shrine

  •      "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." These are the words we have repeated in today's responsorial psalm. It is truly precious and inestimable! Through the death which Christ underwent on the Cross, the redemption of the world was achieved, for this death has the value of supreme love. Through the death of Father Maximilian Kolbe, a shining sign of this love was renewed in our century which is do seriously and in so many ways threatened by sin and death.".

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  • Maximilian prepared for this definitive sacrifice by following Christ from the first years of his life in Poland. From these years comes the mysterious vision of two crowns-one white and one red. From these our saint does not choose. He accepts them both. From the years of his youth, in fact, Maximilian was filled with the great love of Christ and the desire for martyrdom.

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    Before the eloquence of the life and death of blessed Maximilian, it is impossible no to recognize what seems to constitute the main and essential element of the sign given by God to the Church and the world in his death.

    Does not this death-faced spontaneously, for love of man-constitute a particular fulfillment of the words of Christ? Does not this death make Maximilian particularly like unto Christ-the Model of all Martyrs-who gives his own life on the Cross for his brethren? Does not this death possess a particular and penetrating eloquence for our age? Does not this death constitute a particularly authentic witness of the Church in the modern world?

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    Men saw what happened in the camp at Auschwitz. And even if to their eyes it must have seemed that a companion of their torment "dies," even if humanly speaking they could consider "his departure" as "a disaster," nevertheless in their minds this was not simply "death." Maximilian did not die but "gave his life...for his brother." In that death, terrible from the human point of view, there was the whole definitive greatness of the human act and of the human choice. He spontaneously offered himself up to death out of love.

    And in this human death of his there was the clear witness borne to Christ: the witness borne in Christ to the dignity of man, to the sanctity of his life, and to the saving power of death in which the power of love is made manifest.

    -- John Paull II - Homily at the Canonization of St. Maximilian Kolbe

    Biography of Saint Maximillian Kolbe

               He was born on January 7, 1894 in Zdunska Wola, Poland. He died in August 1941 by lethal carbonic acid injection after starvation in Auschwitz Suffered from tuberculosis in youth, and frail in health all his life. Franciscan. Doctor of Theology. Founded the Immaculate Movement, and published the magazine The Knight of the Immaculate. Priest. Imprisoned in Auschwitz for his anti-Nazi publications. Ministered to other prisoners, including conducting Mass and delivering communion using smuggled bread and wine. Traded places with a young married man who was to be slaughtered in retribution for an escaped prisoner. -- St. Maximillian Kolbe

    Other Resources

  • Saint Maximillian Kolbe - Extensive list of links to web sites on Maximillian Kolbe

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