Flora Cantábrica

Tweet

Maximilian Kolbe

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Around 1906, an event occurs that marks a fundamental milestone in Maximiliano’s life, and leaves his mother worried and disconcerted. She tells it herself, a few months after the martyrdom of her son. «I knew in advance, based on an extraordinary case that happened to him in his childhood years, that Maximilian would die a martyr. I just don’t remember if it happened before or after his first confession. Once I didn’t like a prank at all, and I reproached him: My child, who knows what will become of you! Afterwards, I didn’t think any more, but I noticed that the boy had changed so radically, that he couldn’t recognize himself anymore. We had a small altar hidden between two wardrobes, before which he would often withdraw without being noticed and pray while crying. In general, he had a superior demeanor for his age, always collected and serious, and when he prayed, he would burst into tears. I was worried, thinking about some illness, and I asked him: is something wrong with you? You have to tell your mom everything!

Trembling with emotion and with his eyes flooded with tears, he told me: «Mom, when you reproached me, I asked the Virgin a lot to tell me what would become of me. The same in the church, I begged him again. Then the Virgin appeared to me, holding two crowns in her hands: one white and one red. She looked at me fondly and wondered if she wanted those two crowns. The white one meant that she would persevere in purity and the red one that she would be a martyr. I answered that she accepted them… (both). Then the Virgin looked at me sweetly and she disappeared

In the fall of 1912, the Fr. Provincial, taking into account the excellent intellectual qualities of Fray Maximiliano, ordered that, along with others, he continue his studies in philosophy and theology in Rome. The Roman years will be very fruitful and decisive in the life of Maximilian. The Virgin awaits you to inspire you to found the Militia of the Immaculate

THE YEARS OF STUDY IN ROME

In 1917, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the conversion of Alphonse Ratisbon, a well-known anti-Catholic agnostic of Jewish lineage, Saint Maximilian was inspired to found a pious association of the faithful known as «The Militia of the Immaculate.» Its purpose is to promote love and service to the Immaculata, the conversion of souls to Christ

For seven years (1912-1919) he was fundamentally absorbed by study. Maximilian finishes his Roman studies with two doctorates. The first in philosophy, 1915 at the famous Gregorian University. Second in theology in 1919 at the International Seraphic College

The Militia of the Immaculate is the whole ideal of my life». He spoke of her and extolled her mission. He insisted on the need to organize; he invited to join the M.I. His «fixed idea» haunted him. And he wanted to spread his enthusiasm to everyone

THE KNIGHT OF THE IMMACULATE

Love for the Immaculda demands a means to communicate it and to save souls

He had to “bring the Immaculate to the houses, so that the souls, approaching Mary, receive the grace of conversion

Fr. Maximiliano had the brothers photographed, in Franciscan habit, engaged in the different phases of work in the workshop, and published the photos. They caused tremendous commotion. Everyone, particularly the young people, was impressed to see friars and nuns full of joy in serving the Virgin through printing. The desire to consecrate life to the Virgin spread, more vocations came. A call to evangelize with all one’s might with the press but from a base of consecrated life and without diluting the demands of the vows. This is the profound innovation of Fr. Maximilian

NIEPOKALANOW: CITY OF THE IMMACULATE

In 1929, between illness and difficulties, Fr. Kolbe launched his new foundation on land that was miraculously obtained for him: his Marian city. NIEPOKALANOW, or city of the Immaculate, or better, «house, property and kingdom of the Immaculate.» He said that he, the M.I., and each gentleman, are things and property of the Virgin. In Niepokalanow Maria is everything: she is the heart and the goal; she is the ideal and the force. For Her one works, one lives, one suffers, as for Her one dies. Knights are the happy children and faithful servants of Heavenly Mother. «!All to the greater glory of the Immaculate

It consisted of a convent of Franciscan priests and brothers committed to promoting the Militia everywhere through the use of all means of communication within their reach.

First of all, the chapel was built. Later the machinery and all the elements of the printing press were brought. Maximiliano’s aspiration was that Niepokalanow be a school of holiness. “Not only for the greater glory of God, but for the Greater glory of God

THE IMMACULATE IN JAPAN

Two years later Saint Maximilian, in response to the call of the Holy Father to the religious in favor of the missionary needs of the Church, wishes to go to the East to found another city of the Immaculate in Mugenzai No Sono, Japan

LAST PERIOD IN THE CITY OF THE IMMACULATE IN POLAND

He returns to Niepokalanow in 1936 and under his direction the number of friars grows to exceed 900 in the months following World War II. The publishing apostolate produced in excess of one million magazines monthly and 125,000 copies of a daily newspaper. destined for the million members of the Militia in the world

THE CALVARY OF WAR

A few days later, the Wermach, or occupation army, arrives, which without hesitation commits all kinds of outrages, looting and vandalism in the Marian city: they destroy images, light bonfires with sacred ornaments, remove and take away a good part of the machinery typographic. Kolbe, the founder, is present before these sacrilegious destruction. He does not allow himself to be dominated by hatred or cry out for revenge. He just prays, cries and comforts…

On September 19, the German Wermacht appeared in Niepokalanow with shouts: «Everyone out!… Everyone on the march!… All the friars were cornered in the courtyard, lined up in columns and loaded onto trucks heading west. They went from one concentration camp to another: from Lamsdorf to Amtitz, from here to Ostrzeszow. The later horrors of the concentration camps had not yet been reached; however, sufferings were not lacking. There was enough pain to test even the strongest: abuse, arrogance, contempt, violence, disgusting dirt, hunger, cold, promiscuity, lice.

PRESIDIO

Kolbe is on the blacklist of the Secret Police. Why? Father Kolbe is the superior of Niepokalanow, whose Marian activities have such an influence throughout Poland. The Nazis want to destroy that influence and at the same time want to take revenge for the fact that “El Pequeno Diario” came out of those workshops, whose patriotic and Catholic preaching had so infuriated them. Even worse, because of his priesthood, culture and position, Fr. Kolbe was a remarkable leader. The occupation program included the extermination of intellectuals and leaders. In addition, in Niepokalanow asylum was provided to Jews. In the anti-Semitic eyes of the Nazis, this was a crime that deserved the punishment of concentration camps.

One morning in February 1941, two black Gestapo cars stop in front of Niepokalanow. The policemen ask to speak with Fr. Kolbe, who upon learning of his arrival, tremblingly replies to the doorman brother: «Well, well, my son! Mary!» They gather all the friars in the courtyard, meanwhile they rudely inspect the entire convent. Around noon, Father Maximiliano and five other fathers are forced to get into the cars. They leave for a journey of no return. Fr. Maximiliano begins his way of the cross serene and calm, as always. He left his beloved Niepokalanow, his favorite Marian city, never to return.

AUSCHWITZ

The Auschwitz concentration camp is called by the Poles: «death camp», because in its fields, blocks and cellars, more than five million people have perished miserably and tragically. Built on the rubble of some barracks and farms, it is located in southern Poland, in a marshy, unhealthy area, so that there would be no indiscreet witnesses to that factory of death. Surrounded by high electrified wire fences and control towers. There all cruelty and infamy, all bestiality and aberration, all atrocity and all the horrors had come together to transform it into a true hell. Continued deaths from disease and starvation, cold, exhausting fatigue, scurvy, dysentery, trauma and infection. The firing squad was firing dozens at a time against a rubber-lined wall to muffle the noise of the shot. In the main square, five people climbed onto the sidewalk. The executioner placed the noose around their necks. With a kick to the sidewalk, the victims were suspended. Auschwitz had become famous for the installation of the first gas chamber. What he feared most were not the bullets, nor the gallows, nor the gas chambers, but the cellars of death, or «Bunkers», of slow agony, of the maddening martyrdom of hunger and thirst.

Fr. Maximilian enters Auschwitz on the afternoon of May 28, 1941 with a transport of 320 other prisoners

On the morning of May 29, he woke up at 320 to a dehumanizing program. Naked, they were subjected to a collective shower of violent jets of cold water. After they were beaten and mocked obscenely for their nudity, they were dressed in threadbare coats, many of them still stained with blood. Each coat has a number. From now on, each prisoner will be nothing more than a number. That of Father Maximilian Maria Kolbe and