ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE MEDAL

About St. Maximilian Koble . . . Raymond Kolbe was the second of three sons born to a poor but pious Catholic family in Russian occupied Poland. His parents, both Franciscan lay tertiaries, worked at home as weavers. His father, Julius, later ran a religious book store, then enlisted in Pilsudski's army, fought for Polish independence from Russia, and was hanged by the Russians as a traitor in 1914. His mother, Marianne Dabrowska, later became a Benedictine nun. His brother Alphonse became a priest. Raymond was known as a mischievous child, sometimes considered wild, and a trial to his parents. However, in 1906 at Pabianice, at age 12 and around the time of his first Communion, he received a vision of the Virgin Mary that changed his life. He entered the Franciscan junior seminary in Lwow, Poland in 1907 where he excelled in mathematics and physics. For a while he wanted to abandon the priesthood for the military, but eventually relented to the call to religious life, and on September 4, 1910 he became a novice in the Conventual Franciscan Order at age 16. He took the name Maximilian, made his first vows on September 5, 1911, his final vows on November 1, 1914. Maximilian studied philosophy at the Jesuit Gregorian College in Rome from 1912 to 1915, and theology at the Franciscan Collegio Serafico in Rome from 1915 to 1919. Maximilian returned to Poland in 1919 to teach history in the Crakow seminary. Between 1930 and 1936 he was a missionary in Japan and India. Poor health forced him to curtail his missionary work and return to Poland in 1936. In 1939 he was arrested with several of his brothers following the Nazi invasion of Poland. He was released after three months and then arrested again in 1941. He was sent to Auschwitz and branded as prisoner 16670. He was assigned to a special work group staffed by priests and supervised by especially vicious and abusive guards. His calm dedication to the faith brought him the worst jobs available, and more beatings than anyone else. At one point he was beaten, lashed, and left for dead. The prisoners managed to smuggle him into the camp hospital where he spent his recovery time hearing confessions. When he returned to the camp, Maximilian ministered to other prisoners, including conducting Mass and delivering communion using smuggled bread and wine. In July 1941 there was an escape from the camp. Camp protocol, designed to make the prisoners guard each other, required that ten men be slaughtered in retribution for each escaped prisoner. Francis Gajowniczek, a married man with young children was chosen to die for the escape. Maximilian volunteered to take his place, and died as he had always wished - in service.