Today, we celebrate the feast day of Maximillian Kolbe, the patron saint of prisoners and of people struggling with addictions. In recent years, St Kolbe has become a very popular saint for the great example he give all of us. Born in Poland in 1894, he dedicated his life to Mary when he was a young boy, when Mary appeared to him with two crowns: a white crown of purity, of a life dedicated to Christ, and a red crown, of a death of a martyr, giving up one’s life for the faith. Kolbe accepted both crowns. He became a Franciscan friar and priest, founding monasteries in Poland and in Japan, and building a Catholic media empire that reached a large Catholic audience. He died in the Auschwitz concentration camp on August 14, 1941, having volunteered to take the place of a married man with a large family who was going to be put to death as punishment for a prisoner who had escaped. That man whose place he took was present at Kolbe’s canonization in 1982 in Vatican City by Pope John Paul II.
We hear a parable about forgiveness in the Gospel today, very fitting on the feast day of Maximillian Kolbe, we brought God’s love and forgiveness to the world by the way he lived out his faith each day. Kolbe stated: “Without sacrifice, there is no love.” Those were not just words for him, as he paid the ultimate sacrifice for love of God and love of neighbor. St Maximillian Kolbe, pray for us.
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