Maximilian Kolbe was an outspoken Franciscan priest from Poland who was killed for opposing the Nazis.

He was the middle son of three children and was a strain on his parents because he was unruly. When he was 12 he received a vision of Mary while he was praying in front of an image of Our Lady of Czestochowa. She approached him with two crowns, one white and one red. “I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me,” he said. “She asked if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.”

He entered the seminary and became a Franciscan priest, taking the name Maximilian. He went on to higher studies at several universities in Europe and earned his doctoral degree in theology—in fact, his ideas about Mary found resonance in the later developments of the Second Vatican Council.

With some friends, he established an “army” for the Immaculate Heart of Mary—a group of people dedicated to conversion and devotion to Mary. He fell ill with tuberculosis, and never fully recovered—he spent the rest of his life in fragile health that would frequently interrupt his work.

He returned to Poland and began a flurry of evangelical activity, establishing a magazine and newspaper, which, at their peak, were publishing close to 1 million copies a day. He also founded a monastery and junior seminary.

He took some companions to evangelize Japan, even though they did not know the language and had no money. Within months, he was publishing 65,000 copies of his magazine in Japanese there, and had founded a monastery in Nagasaki. The monastery survived the later nuclear bomb blast there, and continues to serve as a center for Franciscans in Japan.

His poor health forced him to return to Poland in 1936, and he helped his monastery establish a radio station. By 1939, the monastery in Poland held some 800 monks, the largest in the world at the time.

When the Nazis invaded Poland in the fall of 1939, Maximilian was arrested and detained for a time. After his release, his monastery’s media continued to publicly oppose the Nazis; they hid some 3,000 Polish refugees, most of whom were Jewish. The Nazis cracked down on the monastery, shut down the presses, dispersed the brothers, and imprisoned Maximilian.

In 1941, Maximilian was transferred to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he became prisoner 16670. His calm demeanor and faithfulness earned him beatings and the most difficult tasks. Once he was beaten and whipped so badly, he was left for dead. Prisoners snuck him into the camp hospital, and he spent his recovery hearing confessions.

In July of that year, some prisoners escaped the camp. In retribution, the Nazis selected ten men for execution for each man that escaped. One man who was selected for execution exclaimed, sobbing, that he had a wife and young children. Maximilian volunteered to take the man’s place.

Maximilian and nine other prisoners were sealed in a chamber (pictured here as it looks today) without food or water. He survived on prayer for two weeks before he was executed by lethal injection on this day in 1941. The man he saved was present with his family at Maximilian’s canonization Mass 40 years later.

Because of the manner of his execution, St. Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of drug addicts; he is also patron of political prisoners, families, journalists, and the pro-life movement. His story and image are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program; illustration by Julie Lonneman and used with permission.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, you opposed the Nazis and gave your life that another prisoner could live—pray for us!

To learn even more about Saint Maximilian Kolbe, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.