St. Maximilian Kolbe

His Relics
His Legacy
Our reliquary was made in
Poland to commemorate
Maximilian’s beatification in 1971.
Crafted from bronze and silver,
this beautiful reliquary presents
different symbols from the life of
St. Maximilian.
For more information on
St. Maximilian and the
Immaculata, please visit the
following resources:
The base is in the shape of Poland
– the birthplace and foundation
Maximilian’s life. Thorns grow out
of the map symbolizing the cruel
occupation of Poland by the
German Third Reich. Ultimately
the thorns symbolize Auschwitz
concentration camp where
St. Maximilian was martyred.
Militia of the Immaculata, USA
www.missionimmaculata.com
Marytown,
National Shrine of St. Maximililan Kolbe
www.marytown.org
Militia of the Immaculata, International
www.mi-international.org
Strands of St. Maximilian’s beard hair
are affixed to the diamond cloth
at the center of the glass case.
Growing out of the thorns, however,
are a lily representing purity and
a tulip representing martyrdom.
These flowers imply that the Nazis
thought Maximilian would shrivel
like a tulip, but God has made him
blossom like a lily. Ultimately both
flowers are symbols of his life of
love triumphing over hate.
This beautiful reliquary of
St. Maximilian Kolbe is under the care
of the Franciscan Friars Conventual.
The relics themselves are strands
from Maximilian’s’ beard. They are
housed in a glass case entwined
with the Franciscan cord with its
three knots for the Friars’ vows of
chastity, poverty, and obedience.
The Franciscan cord symbolizes
Maximilian’s vocation as a
Franciscan Friar Conventual.
An excellent resource is
St. Maximilian Kolbe: Martyr of
Charity, by Fr. James McCurry, OFM
Conv., Minister Provincial of the Our
Lady of the Angels Province. This
64-page booklet, published by CTS
in London, is
based upon
Maximilian’s
writings and
first-hand
testimonies of
many witnesses
whom the
author has
known
personally and
interviewed.
To order go to:
www.olaprovince.org
Our Lady of the Angels Province
Franciscan Friars Conventual
12300 Folly Quarter Road
Ellicott City, MD 21042
www.olaprovince.org
54586LF
Flat Size: 14" X 8.5"
Diecut or Score
Finished Size: 3.5" X 8.5"
Litho: 4CP / 4 CP
Fold
Perforation
Fold and Perf
St. Maximilian
Kolbe
Kisscut and Fold
Lasering XXX and FPO
Martyr of Charity
&
Saint of our
Difficult Times
In 1919 Fr. Kolbe returned to Poland
and became a professor at the
Franciscan seminary in Krakow. In
1927 he established the first “City
of the Immaculata,” Niepokalanow,
outside Warsaw, and in 1930
established another “City,” Mugenzai
no Sono, in Nagasaki, Japan.
Marytown in Libertyville, Illinois is
the third “City of the Immaculata.”
St. Maximilian Kolbe, late 1930’s,
with beard from which hairs were
preserved to create his relics.
His Life
St. Maximilian was born Raymond
Kolbe in Poland, January 8, 1894.
In 1910, he entered the novitiate
of the Franciscan Friars Conventual.
In 1912 he was sent to study
in Rome where, in 1917, with
six confreres, Friar Maximilian
founded the Militia Immaculatae
(Knights of the Immaculate), a
movement whose members are
committed to transforming
themselves and society through
the message of Jesus Christ,
especially by identifying with
Mary, the Immaculate. In 1918,
he was ordained a priest.
Niepokalanow published countless
religious tracts, a daily newspaper
with a circulation of 230,000 and
a monthly magazine with a
circulation of over one million.
Fr. Kolbe started a radio station and
planned to build a motion picture
studio. By 1936 Niepokalanow had
grown to number 782 members,
the largest Catholic center for
evangelism in the world at the time.
In September 1939, Nazi soldiers
stormed into Niepokalanow and
arrested Fr. Kolbe and 50 other
Franciscan Friars
Conventual being
led to prison by
Nazi soldiers,
September 1939.
religious. Freed in December,
Fr. Kolbe returned to Niepokalanow.
On February 17, 1941 Fr. Kolbe was
arrested by the Gestapo and in May
1941 he was transferred to Auschwitz.
At the end of July 1941, a prisoner
from Fr. Kolbe’s cell block escaped.
As an example and punishment to
the other prisoners, 10 men from
his block were randomly selected
to die. Fr. Kolbe was not chosen,
but volunteered to take the place of
Francis Gajowniczek, a man who had
a wife and two children. Still alive
after two weeks of starvation,
Fr. Kolbe was injected with a lethal
dose of phenol on August 14, 1941.
Pope John Paul II canonized
Maximilian as a “Martyr of Charity”
and “Patron Saint of our difficult
century” in 1982. St. Maximilian
Kolbe is the patron saint of
prisoners, journalists, families,
volunteers, the pro-life movement,
and the chemically addicted.
His Spirituality
St. Maximilian’s
spirituality
focuses on Mary
as Spouse of the
Holy Spirit and
mediatress, along
with Jesus, of
God’s redemptive
graces to us. While
some might view
mediations other St. Maximilian made the
Miraculous Medal a sign
than Jesus’
of total consecration to
mediation as
the Immaculata.
walls that separate
us from Christ, Kolbe viewed them as
doors and windows through which
the Son of God shines in our lives and
blesses our souls.
In practice, Kolbe’s Marian spirituality
takes the form of a total consecration
to Mary, the Immaculate Conception.
Because she is without sin, the will of
the Immaculate is perfectly and totally
united to the Will of the Holy Spirit.
As the Immaculate Conception,
therefore, Mary can never be a barrier
or wall between God and us for She
is incapable of doing anything apart
from the will of God. Instead, in our
consecration to the Immaculata, we
become instruments in Her hands
in the work of transforming and
redeeming the world according to
God’s plan.