# The courage and devotion of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe
*2018-08-14*

> Bill Young reflects on the life and sacrifice of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, highlighting his profound devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and his ultimate act of love in Auschwitz.

## A Passion for the Faith

Today is August 14th, the feast day of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe. For those who don't know his story, he was born in Poland and became a priest in the 1930s. He was not an ordinary priest; he possessed a great devotion to Mary, which he sought to publicize through papers and magazines. His publications reached a circulation of over one million readers. In a similar spirit, I hope that we can reach many viewers and bring them closer to Jesus Christ.

## The Ultimate Sacrifice

In 1941, Father Kolbe was arrested for a second time in Poland and sent to Auschwitz. For a while, he managed to survive, secretly celebrating Mass with bread and wine that had been smuggled in. However, after some prisoners escaped, the Nazis decided to kill ten prisoners as an example to the others. One of the selected prisoners was a married man with children. In an act of incredible charity, Maximilian offered to switch places with him, taking the place of a man he didn't even know.

## A Legacy of Love

He was placed in a cell, stripped naked, and starved for two weeks without food or water. Even after two weeks, he was still alive. Eventually, he was killed with an injection of acid in his arm, and his body was destroyed in the furnace. Remarkably, some forty years later, the man he saved attended the canonization of Saint Maximilian Kolbe. It shows that you never know how your devotion to Mary and Jesus Christ will affect your life and the lives of others.

## Prayer to the Immaculate Virgin

I want to share a prayer written by Saint Maximilian Kolbe to the Immaculate Virgin Mary: 'Grant that I may praise you, O Immaculate Virgin, with my commitment and personal sacrifice; grant that I may live, work, suffer, consume myself, and die for you, only for you. Grant that I may lead the entire world to you. Grant that I may attribute to the greatest glory, to your utmost glorification. Grant that I may render your glory such that no one has ever given you until this day. Grant that others may surpass me in this zeal for your glorification and that I may surpass them so that in noble emulation of each other we may allow your glory to grow ever more profoundly, ever more rapidly, ever more attentively according to the desires of Him who exalted you in such an ineffable way above all beings.'

*Saint Maximilian Kolbe's life teaches us that a deep devotion to Mary leads us to a selfless, sacrificial love for our neighbor and for Jesus Christ.*