The Life of St. Maximillian Kolbe

Article Written by LCDR Cynthia Ayers

Originally Published in the May, June, July, August 1998 Issues of The Mighty Max

PART I

     Fr. Kolbe was born on January 7^th, 1894 in Zdunska Wola (near Lodz), Poland to Julius and Maria Kolbe.  His birth name was Raymond, his parents were weavers and were very poor.  They had five sons—two died very young—and Francis, Raymond, and Joseph lived into adulthood.  Their parents worked ten-hour days and only the oldest boy, Francis, was able to go to school.

     Raymond planted trees around the neighborhood and worked at home for his mother during the day.  When he quoted Latin for a prescription to the local pharmacist, he volunteered to teach Raymond for free.  Because of this man’s instruction, Raymond was able to pass exams for school, enabling him to enroll.

     Raymond Kolbe had the joy of a saint from a small child.  He prayed often to Mary as most Poles do.  As a very young child, he often prayed to Mary at a small shrine in his home.  One time, Mary appeared to him in a vision, and offered him two crowns—a white one for purity and a red one for martyrdom.  He accepted both of them and from that day on was a totally transformed person.

     When Raymond was thirteen years old, Franciscan fathers came to their town to talk about mission work and to inspire people to join their order.  Francis and Raymond answered the call and were admitted to the Minor Seminary at Lwow, Poland, to study for the priesthood.  Their father accompanied them to Cracon in the Austrian zone.  To reach Cracow they had to cross the frontier secretly (as they were in Russian held Poland).  From there, they took a train to Lwow traveling alone.  It was 1907.

     Raymond was very, very smart and had a deep interest in math and the sciences.  He especially loved astronomy!  (One of the brothers of his order remembered that one clear night, Fr. Kolbe named every star and planet that was visible in the sky.  He explained the Milky Way and system of galaxies.  He had read and studied books by astronomers, especially Kepler.

     Raymond studied hard at the Minor Seminary in Lwow.  On September 4^th, 1910, Raymond entered the novitiate at the Friars Minor Conventual in Lwow, Poland, and was given the name, Friar Maximillian.  It is not known exactly why he chose the name Maximillian.  Perhaps it was the name of a local or regional hero or holy person in that area of Poland.  Maximillian was a popular name for men throughout the Holy Roman Empire area.  Fr. Maximillian almost didn’t enter the seminary as he had an interest and a gift in military strategies and maneuvers.  He felt that he should use this gift to free Poland from Russian domination.  His mother came for a visit and convinced him to enter the novitiate.  From then on, he became a “soldier for God.”

Part II

          Raymond continued his studies with the Franciscans.  He took a deep interest in mathematics and the sciences.  He was the boast of his classmates, but a source of fear to his teachers as they couldn’t answer his questions!  Besides studies, Raymond loved making strategic plans.  One day in a public garden, he sketched a system of fortifications that would make Lwow impregnable to invasion.  At age 16, he went through a crisis of his soul, while he pondered whether to become a priest or a military strategist.  In the middle of this crisis, his mother came for a  visit and told him that his other brother, Joseph, had decided to become a priest.  Furthermore, his mother and his father had both decided to join religious orders.  Raymond went straight to his Father Provincial and joined the Franciscan order.  The entire family had now taken vows to a religious order!  On September 4, 1910, at age 16, Raymond entered the novitiate of the Friars Minor Concentual in Lwow, Poland, and was given the name Friar Maximillian.  As a young novice, Fr. Max was a disciple of an elderly priestnamed Fr. Venance Katarzyniec.  Fr. Max admired him greatly for his humility and his quiet acceptance of a fatal illness.  It was aa lesson that Fr. Max would live by for the rest of his life.

     Fr. Max’s superiors soon recognized his exceptional intellect and decided to send him to Rome to attend the Gregorian university.  A friend said of Fr. Max, that if he had not joined the Friars, “he would surely have become a great strategist or a clever inventor.”  But he was kept on the path of becoming a saint!  Rome was an overwhelming experience for him at first, but it gave him a deep sense of the saints who had gone before him.  His studies and experiences there continued to deepen his holiness.  Gradually he learned to fight for God under Mary’s leadership totally in a spiritual sense.

     On Nov. 1, 1914, All Saints’ Day, he took his solemn vows.  Meanwhile, war had broken out.  The war gave him a great compassion for all people.  World War I matured him and World War II glorified him.  The story of his life was bound between those two wars.

     In Rome during World War I, Fr. Max continued to grow intellectually and spiritually.  On November 22, 1915, at age 21, he earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Pontifical Gregorian University.  However, his devotion to Mary was childlike and sincere.  He said the rosary and other Marian prayers as he walked to the churches around Rome.  He used to address Mary sweetly as “Mamma mia.”  Fr. Max was exuberant in his desire to bring other people to Christ.

     He would stop and witness to people in the street.  He also tried to win people over with theological arguments.  One day as Fr. Max tried to witness to a man on the street, the man snapped.  “Listen, young man, don’t dispute what I say, I’m a doctor of philosophy.”  Only to have his baby-faced opponent respond, “So am I.”  (A man for others: Maximillian Kolbe by Patricia Treece)  Fr. Max grew more and more in his desire to “love without limits.”  (His own words.)

     In the midst of his spiritual and intellectual studies, Max contracted tuberculosis, a disease common in Rome.  He was ordered to bedrest and thought that his life might end.  However, it was not the end for him, but he would suffer from recurrent bouts of tuberculosis for the rest of his life.

     On July 22, 1919, Fr. Max was honored with his second doctorate, which was in theology.  He was 25!

Part III

     Fr. Maximillian was devastated by what had happened to the world as a result of World War I.  He left Rome and returned to his homeland in July, 1919.  The treaties of WWI had pieced together Poland so that it was a political and cultural reality for the first time since the partitions of 1772-1795.  However, there was little rejoicing.  The country was in ruin economically and politically.

     But, what bothered Fr. Max the most was the state of the church.  The war had also torn apart the church.  It was in a state of lethargy.  Many people had left the church and the religious orders.  Fr. Max prayed about what to do.  Physically, he was still suffering greatly from tuberculosis.  He also suffered from violent headaches.  He tried to hide how sick he was, but he walked very slowly and talked very softly.  In spite of this, he was appointed professor of Theology at the Cracow Fransciscan Seminary where he had previously been a student.  The seminary was desperate for a teacher of his caliber.  However, it soon became clear that he was too ill to teach.  Not only was he exhausted by sickness and work, but many of the friars made fun of him and called him names behind his back and in front of him.

     A lesser person would probably have given up.  But, not Father Maximillian.  He went quietly about his business attending to others—helping out in the hospital, preaching, and hearing confessions.  During this time, he continued to work on the idea of a special order of brothers and priests called to a special devotion to Mary.  Their mission was to bring all souls to Christ.  The group was to be called the Militia of the Immaculate.

     The flowering of Fr. Max’s idea was delayed by a worsening of his tuberculosis.  He spent the whole of 1920 in a sanatorium at Zakopane.  He spent the time ministering to patients and staff.  Fr. Max’s personal suffering only made him more loving and caring.

     Although he was not cured, he felt better and was allowed to return to Cracow in November, 1921.  He began in earnest forming units of the Militia.  One of the units was for high school students, another for local intellectuals, and another was for Franciscan clergy and lay members.  But, how could they reach more people?  Fr. Max conceived of the idea to publish a magazine to spread the gospel and reach potential members.  He received permission from his Superior, but only with the understanding that the group would expect no financial support from the Franciscan order.  There were many skeptics to his idea.

     Fr. Max and his supporters prayed hard and began the writing and printing of the magazine.  They soon ran out of money.  A visiting American priest, Lawrence Cyman, was taken with their zeal and donated a hundred dollars!  With this money, they purchased an old hand-cranked printing press.  They hand-cranked it about six times for each of the 5,000 copies of a run!

     Fr. Max and his followers needed more space.  They were transferred to Grodno, Poland.  In Oct. 1922, there were four priests and six brothers in residence with two presses and a run of 12,000 magazines.  In 1927, they published 60,000 magazines!  The magazine was called the Knight of the Immaculata and contained articles about Christianity and about joining the work at Grodno.  It was given away to people.  Fr. Max and others distributed it on the street corners.

     Kolbe began printing pictures of the brothers working on the printing press.  “Imagine a country where the mental picture of a religious order was a kneeling figure, eyes raised to heaven, hands joined in prayer, and you have some idea of the sensation this caused.” (A Man for Others: Maximillian Kolbe, by Patricia Treece, p.27).  The idea of Franciscan priests and brothers working with 20^th century technology just seemed preposterous to most Poles!  However many young men began to come to Grodno to be involved in the work of the Immaculata.  There was never any charge for the magazine, but it carried on with the donations sent in.  The brothers lived in a state of extreme poverty. Any money they received, they used to publish more magazines!

     Soon, it became clear that Fr. Max and his supporters would need a place of their own in order to carry on their mission of reaching others for Christ…