St. Maximilian Kolbe

Patron of addicts, drug users, prisoners, journalists, families, pro-life movement.

Feast Day: August 14th

Martyr and Religious

Zduńska Wola, Poland

Feast Day: August 14th

Martyr and Religious

Zduńska Wola, Poland

About

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan priest known for his missionary zeal, Marian devotion, and heroic self-sacrifice during World War II. Born in 1894, he founded the Militia Immaculate (Army of the Immaculate) to promote consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary and spread the Gospel through media, including a Catholic newspaper and radio station. Arrested by the Nazis in 1941, he was sent to Auschwitz, where he offered his life in place of another prisoner, a father and husband. He was starved and then executed by lethal injection on August 14, 1941.

Legacy

St. Maximilian Kolbe is remembered as a martyr of charity, a fearless defender of faith, and a pioneer of Catholic media. His life of total consecration to Mary and his selfless act of love continue to inspire Catholics around the world. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1982 and called him the “patron saint of our difficult century.”

“No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it.” — St. Maximilian Kolbe