St. Maximilian Kolbe

Sorry I haven't posted in so long!! Things have been busy with new baby and everything.
Maximilian Kolbe is today's saint because I'm in Confirmation class with my best friend and her saint she's picked is Maximilian Kolbe.
He was born in part of the Russian Empire in 1894, also a modern saint (you can tell I'm into modern saints by now) and his birth name was Rajmund Kolbe. His mother worked as a midwife and also sold vegetables and his father was executed for fighting for independence of Poland. Rajmund was very devoted to the Blessed Virgin and when he was a child, he had a vision that Mary appeared to him holding a white crown, for purity, and a red crown, for martyrdom. She asked him which he would choose and he said he would have both. He became a Franciscan in 1914 and became a priest four years later. During the war, he had a great respect for Jews and hid them and gave them food. During WWII, he hid 2,000 Jews in his monastery. He was caught by the Gestapo in 1941 and taken to Auschwitz in May. While there, 3 prisoners escaped from the concentration camp. There was a custom in the camps that is someone escaped, other prisoners would be punished to keep them from trying to escape. So, 10 men were chosen to be starved in a small cell underground. One man, named Franciszek Gajowniczek, had a wife and children. He cried out for them and Kolbe took sympathy on him and offered to take his place. The guards thought he was crazy but consented. He celebrated Mass with the other 9 prisoners in the cell. Their bread that was their food was unleavened, so he could use it for the Eucharist. Some guards were soft-hearted and volunteered wine to use occasionally. After 2 weeks, all the other men had died and Kolbe was still alive and praying and singing hymns. The other guards needed the bunker for other purposes, so they injected him with lethal carbolic acid. He quietly held out his arm and died on August 14, 1941. He was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1982 and Franciszek Gajowniczek was present at the ceremony. He is the patron saint of drug addiction, families, prisoners, and the pro-life movement. 

Maximilian Kolbe

Franciszek Gajowniczek