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Maximilian Kolbe

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Saint

Maximilian Kolbe

OFMConv
Kolbe in 1936
Martyr
BornRaymund Kolbe
(1894-01-08)8 January 1894
Zduńska Wola, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died14 August 1941(1941-08-14) (aged 47)
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi Germany
Venerated in
Beatified17 October 1971, Vatican City by Pope Paul VI
Canonized10 October 1982, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II
Major shrineBasilica of the Omni-mediatress of All Glories
Feast14 August
Attributes
Patronageprisoners, drug addicts, families, journalists, amateur radio operators, pro-life movement, people with eating disorders[1]
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Maximilian Maria Kolbe OFMConv (born Raymund Kolbe; Polish: Maksymilian Maria Kolbe;[a] 8 January 1894 – 14 August 1941) was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar, priest, missionary, and martyr. He volunteered to die in place of a man named Franciszek Gajowniczek in the German death camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II. He had been active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, founding and supervising the monastery of Niepokalanów near Warsaw, operating an amateur-radio station (SP3RN), and founding or running several other organizations and publications.

On 10 October 1982, Pope John Paul II canonized Kolbe and declared him a martyr of charity.[2] The Catholic Church venerates him as the patron saint of amateur radio operators, drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, and prisoners.[3] John Paul II declared him "the patron of our difficult century".[4][5] His feast day is 14 August, the day of his martyrdom.

Due to Kolbe's efforts to promote consecration and entrustment to Mary, he is known as an "apostle of consecration to Mary".[6]

Early life

[edit]

Raymund Kolbe was born on 8 January 1894 in Zduńska Wola, in the Kingdom of Poland, then a puppet state of the Russian Empire. He was the second son of weaver Julius Kolbe and midwife Maria Dąbrowska.[7] His father was an ethnic German,[8] and his mother was Polish. Raymund had four brothers, two of whom died of tuberculosis. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Pabianice in Poland.[7]

In 1903, when he was age nine, Kolbe experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary.[9] He later described this incident:

That night I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.[10]

Franciscan friar

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In 1907, Kolbe and his elder brother Francis joined the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, known as the Conventual Franciscans.[11] They enrolled at the Conventual Franciscan minor seminary in Lwów, in present-day Ukraine, later that year. In 1910, the Franciscans allowed Raymund Kolbe to enter the novitiate, where he chose a religious name, Maximilian. He professed his first vows to the order in 1911, and his final vows in 1914,[12] adopting the additional name of Maria (Mary).[7]

World War I

[edit]

The Franciscans sent Kolbe to Rome in 1912 to attend the Pontifical Gregorian University. While he was studying at the Gregorian, World War I broke out in 1914. The next year, Kolbe's father Julius joined the Polish Legions, a unit in the Austro-Hungarian Army led by Józef Piłsudski. Julius was captured later that year by the Imperial Russian Army and was hanged as a traitor. The news of his father's execution traumatized Kolbe.[13]

Kolbe earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the Gregorian in 1915. Kolbe then continued his studies at the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure in Rome, where he earned a doctorate in theology in either 1919[7] or 1922.[14] During this period, he became active in the consecration and entrustment to Mary.

While in Rome, Kolbe witnessed vehement demonstrations by Freemasons against Pope Pius X and later Pope Benedict XV. According to Kolbe:

They placed the black standard of the "Giordano Brunisti" under the windows of the Vatican. On this standard the archangel, Michael, was depicted lying under the feet of the triumphant Lucifer. At the same time, countless pamphlets were distributed to the people in which the Holy Father (i.e., the Pope) was attacked shamefully.[15][16]

To counter these demonstrations, Kolbe started the Militia Immaculatae (Army of the Immaculate One) on 16 October 1917. This was a group of Catholics who prayed for the conversion of sinners and enemies of the Catholic Church, specifically the Freemasons, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary.[17][14] So serious was Kolbe about this goal that he added a line to the Miraculous Medal prayer:

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. And for all those who do not have recourse to thee; especially the Freemasons and all those recommended to thee.[18]

During this period, Kolbe proposed that the entire Franciscan Order be consecrated to the Immaculate by an additional vow. The idea was well received, but faced the hurdles of approval by the hierarchy of the order and the lawyers and was never adopted.[19]

Priesthood

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In 1918, Kolbe was ordained a priest.[20] In July 1919, after the end of World War I, he returned to Poland to teach at the Kraków Seminary. The Second Polish Republic had won its independence from the Russian Republic in 1918. While in Kraków, Kolbe was active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. He was strongly opposed to socialist and communist movements that had surfaced in Poland after the war.[7]

In 1922, a recurrence of tuberculosis forced Kolbe to leave the seminary.[7][14][20]

In January 1922, Kolbe founded the monthly periodical Rycerz Niepokalanej (Knight of the Immaculata), a devotional publication based on the French Le Messager du Coeur de Jesus (Messenger of the Heart of Jesus). From 1922 to 1926, he operated a religious publishing press in Grodno in present-day Belarus.[7] As his activities grew in scope, in 1927 he founded a new Conventual Franciscan monastery at Niepokalanów near Warsaw. It became a major religious publishing centre.[14][7][20] A junior seminary was opened there two years later.[14]

Missionary work in Asia

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During the 1920s, Kolbe encountered a group of Japanese Catholics studying in Poland. They lamented the lack of Catholic missionaries in Japan, prompting Kolbe to consider making a missionary trip to East Asia.[21][7][20]Kolbe arrived in 1930 in Shanghai, then part of the Republic of China. However, his mission failed to gather a following there, prompting him to move to Japan.[7] Kolbe soon acquired a basic literacy in Japanese.[22] In 1931, Kolbe founded a Franciscan monastery, Mugenzai no Sono (無原罪の園, transl. Garden of the Immaculata),[b] outside Nagasaki.[22] The monastery soon began publishing a Japanese edition of the Knight of the Immaculata.[21][7][20]

In mid-1932, Kolbe left Japan for Malabar, then part of British India, where he founded another monastery.[14][self-published source]

Return to Poland

[edit]

Meanwhile, in his absence the monastery at Niepokalanów began to publish a daily newspaper Mały Dziennik (the Small Diary), in alliance with the political group National Radical Camp (Obóz Narodowo Radykalny).[14][7] This publication reached a circulation of 137,000, and nearly double that, 225,000, on weekends.[23] Kolbe returned to Poland in 1933 for a general chapter of the order in Kraków.[24][25] Kolbe returned to Japan and remained there until called back to attend the Provincial Chapter in Poland in 1936. There he was appointed guardian of Niepokalanów, thus precluding his return to Japan. In 1938, he started a radio station at Niepokalanów, Radio Niepokalanów.[14][self-published source][26] He held an amateur radio licence, with the call sign SP3RN.[27]

World War II

[edit]

The invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 by the German Army signaled the start of World War II. Kolbe was one of the few priests who remained in the monastery, where he organized a temporary hospital.[7] After the Germans captured Niepokalanów, they arrested Kolbe on 19 September 1939.[14][7] While in custody, Kolbe refused to sign the Deutsche Volksliste (German People's List). Doing so would have given him rights similar to those of German citizens in exchange for recognizing his ethnic German ancestry.[28] The Germans released him on 8 December 1939.[14]

Upon his release, he continued work at his friary where he and other friars provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews whom he hid from Nazi persecution in the Niepokalanów friary.[14][self-published source][20][29][28][30] Kolbe received permission to continue publishing religious works, though significantly reduced in scope.[28] The monastery continued to act as a publishing house, issuing a number of publications considered anti-Nazi.[14][self-published source][20]

Arrest and imprisonment

[edit]
Maximilian Kolbe's prison cell in Block 11, Auschwitz concentration camp

On 17 February 1941, the Gestapo shut down the monastery and arrested Kolbe along with four others. He was incarcerated in the Pawiak prison in Warsaw.[14] On 28 May 1941, the Germans transferred Kolbe to the Auschwitz concentration camp as prisoner 16670.[31]

Kolbe, on a West German postage stamp, marked Auschwitz

Arriving at Auschwitz, Kolbe started ministering to his fellow prisoners. He was subjected to violent harassment by the guards, including beatings and lashings. On one occasion, sympathetic inmates smuggled the wounded Kolbe to a prisoner hospital.[14][28]

Martyrdom at Auschwitz

[edit]

At the end of July 1941, a prisoner successfully escaped from Auschwitz. In reprisal, the deputy camp commander, SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, ordered guards to pick ten men to be starved to death in an underground bunker. When selected, Franciszek Gajowniczek, a Polish Catholic, cried out, "My wife! My children!" At that moment, Kolbe volunteered to take his place.[11]

An assistant janitor later testified that Kolbe led the prisoners in prayer from his prison cell. Each time the guards checked on him, he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looking calmly at those who entered. After the group had been starved and deprived of water for two weeks, only Kolbe and three others remained alive.[32]

Impatient to empty the bunker, the guards gave the four remaining prisoners lethal injections of carbolic acid. Kolbe is said to have raised his left arm and calmly waited for it.[20] Maximilian Kolbe died on 14 August 1941. He was cremated on 15 August, which happened to be the feast day of the Assumption of Mary.[28]

Canonization

[edit]

The cause for Kolbe's beatification was opened at a local level on 3 June 1952.[33] On 12 May 1955, Kolbe was recognized by Pope Pius XII as a servant of God.[28] Kolbe was declared venerable by Pope Paul VI on 30 January 1969 and beatified as a confessor of the faith by the same pope in 1971. The miracles used to confirm Kolbe's beatification were the July 1948 cure of intestinal tuberculosis in Angela Testoni and the August 1950 cure of calcification of the arterial sclerosis of Francis Ranier. Both individuals attributed their cures to Kolbe's intercession by their prayers to him.[14][self-published source]

Kolbe was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 10 October 1982.[14][34] The pope declared him as a confessor and a martyr of charity. Franciszek Gajowniczek, the man Kolbe saved at Auschwitz, survived the Holocaust and was present as a guest at both the beatification and the canonization ceremonies.[35]

The statue of Kolbe (left) above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey

After his canonisation, a feast day for Kolbe was added to the General Roman Calendar. He is one of ten 20th-century martyrs who are depicted in statues above the Great West Door of the Anglican Westminster Abbey in London.[36]

Kolbe is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 14 August.[37]

Controversies

[edit]

Kolbe's recognition as a Christian martyr generated some controversy within the Catholic Church.[38] While his self-sacrifice at Auschwitz was considered saintly and heroic, he was not killed as a result of odium fidei (hatred of the faith), but as the result of his act of Christian charity toward another man. Pope Paul VI recognized this distinction at Kolbe's beatification, naming him a confessor and giving him the unofficial title "martyr of charity". John Paul II, however, overruled the commission he had established (which agreed with the earlier assessment of heroic charity). John Paul II wanted to make the point that the Nazis' systematic hatred of whole categories of humanity was inherently also a hatred of religious (Christian) faith; he said that Kolbe's death equated to earlier examples of religious martyrdom.[38]

Accusations of antisemitism

[edit]

Kolbe's alleged antisemitism was a source of controversy in the 1980s in the aftermath of his canonization.[39] In 1926, in the first issue of the monthly Knight of the Immaculate, Kolbe said he considered Freemasons "as an organized clique of fanatical Jews, who want to destroy the church."[40] In a 1924 column, he cited the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as an "important proof" that "the founders of Zionism intended, in fact, the subjugation of the entire world", but that "not even all Jews know this".[41] In a calendar that the publishing house of his organization, the Militia of the Immaculate, published in an edition of a million in 1939, Kolbe wrote,

"Atheistic Communism seems to rage ever more wildly. Its origin can easily be located in that criminal mafia that calls itself Freemasonry, and the hand that is guiding all that toward a clear goal is international Zionism. Which should not be taken to mean that even among Jews one cannot find good people."[42]

In his periodicals, Kolbe published articles about topics such as a Zionist plot for world domination.[43][44][45] Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek criticized Kolbe's activities as "writing and organizing mass propaganda for the Catholic Church, with a clear anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic edge."[44][46] In contrast, a writer for online EWTN stated that the "Jewish question played a very minor role in Kolbe's thought and work" and that "only thirty-one out of over 14,000 of his letters reference the Jewish people or Judaism, and most express a missionary zeal and concern for their spiritual welfare".[47]

During World War II, Kolbe's monastery at Niepokalanów sheltered Jewish refugees.[44] According to the testimony of a local, "When Jews came to me asking for a piece of bread, I asked Father Maximilian if I could give it to them in good conscience, and he answered me, 'Yes, it is necessary to do this because all men are our brothers.'"[47]

Relics

[edit]

First-class relics of Kolbe exist, in the form of hairs from his head and beard, preserved without his knowledge by two friars at Niepokalanów who served as barbers in his friary between 1930 and 1941. Since his beatification in 1971, more than 1,000 such relics have been distributed around the world for public veneration.[48]

Second-class relics, such as his personal effects, clothing and liturgical vestments, are preserved in his monastery cell and in a chapel at Niepokalanów, where they may be venerated by visitors.[48]

Influence

[edit]
The first monument to Maximilian Kolbe in Poland in Chrzanów

Kolbe influenced his own Order of Conventual Franciscan friars, as the Militia Immaculatae movement had continued.[49] In recent years, new religious and secular institutes have been founded, inspired from this spiritual way. Among these are the Missionaries of the Immaculate Mary – Fr. Kolbe, the Franciscan Friars of Mary Immaculate, and a parallel congregation of religious sisters and others. The Franciscan Friars of Mary Immaculate are taught basic Polish so they can sing the traditional hymns sung by Kolbe, in his native tongue.[50]

According to the friars:

Our patron, St. Maximilian Kolbe, inspires us with his unique Mariology and apostolic mission, which is to bring all souls to the Sacred Heart of Christ through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Christ's most pure, efficient, and holy instrument of evangelization – especially those most estranged from the Church.[50]

Stained-glass window by Alois Plum depicting Edith Stein and Maximilian Kolbe

Kolbe's views into Marian theology echo today through their influence on Vatican II.[14] His image may be found in churches across Europe[36] and throughout the world. Several churches in Poland are under his patronage, such as the Sanctuary of Saint Maxymilian in Zduńska Wola and the Church of Saint Maxymilian Kolbe in Szczecin.[51][52] A museum, Museum of St. Maximilian Kolbe "There was a Man", was opened in Niepokalanów in 1998.[53]

In 1963, Rolf Hochhuth published The Deputy, a play influenced by Kolbe's life, and dedicated to him.[28] In 2000, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (US) designated Marytown in Libertyville, Illinois home to a community of Conventual Franciscan friars, as the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe.[54]

In 1991, Krzysztof Zanussi released a biographical Polish film about Kolbe, Life for Life: Maximilian Kolbe [pl], with Edward Żentara as Kolbe. The Polish Senate declared 2011 to be the year of Kolbe.[55]

In 2023, the Mexican production company Dos Corazones Films released the animated feature film Max, which recounts part of Kolbe's life.[56]

The 2025 film Triumph of the Heart tells the story of Kolbe's final weeks in the Block 11 starvation chamber. The film was written and directed by Anthony D'Ambrosio and stars Marcin Kwasny.[57]

A bust of Kolbe in Henryk Jordan Park in Kraków

Immaculata prayer

[edit]

Kolbe composed the Immaculata prayer as a prayer of consecration to the Immaculata.[58]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Pronounced [maksɨˌmʲilʲan ˌmarʲja ˈkɔlbɛ].
  2. ^ After the friars learned that mugenzai was a homonym for "endless sin", the monastery's name was later changed to Seibo no Kishi (transl. Knights of the Blessed Mother).[22]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "'I would like to take his place' – DW – 08/14/2016". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  2. ^ Kijas, Zdzisław Józef (2020). "THE PROCESS OF BEATIFICATION AND CANONIZATION OF MAXIMILIAN MARIA KOLBE" (PDF). Studia Elbląskie. XXI: 199–213.
  3. ^ "'I would like to take his place' – DW – 08/14/2016". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  4. ^ Biniaz, Benjamin. "Religious Resistance in Auschwitz: The Sacrifice of Saint Kolbe". USC Shoah Foundation. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  5. ^ "Holy Mass at the Brzezinka Concentration Camp". Vatican. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  6. ^ Armstrong, Regis J.; Peterson, Ingrid J. (2010). The Franciscan Tradition. Liturgical Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-8146-3922-1.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Czesław Lechicki, Kolbe Rajmund, Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Tom XIII, 1968, p. 296
  8. ^ Strzelecka, Kinga (1984). Maksymilian M. Kolbe: für andere leben und sterben (in German). S[ank]t-Benno-Verlag. p. 6.
  9. ^ Dewar, Diana (1982). Saint of Auschwitz: The Story of Maximilian Kolbe. Harper & Row. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-06-061901-5.
  10. ^ Armstrong, Regis J.; Peterson, Ingrid J. (2010). The Franciscan Tradition. Liturgical Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-0-8146-3922-1.
  11. ^ a b "Saint Maximilian Kolbe | Catholic-Pages.com". Catholic-Pages.com. Archived from the original on 3 August 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  12. ^ Dewar, Diana (1982). Saint of Auschwitz: The Story of Maximilian Kolbe. Harper & Row. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-06-061901-5.
  13. ^ "St Maximilian M Kolbe". Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Saints Index; Catholic Forum.com, Saint Maximilian Kolbe[self-published source]
  15. ^ "Biographical Data Summary". Consecration Militia of the Immaculata. Archived from the original on 2 January 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  16. ^ Czupryk, Father Cornelius (1935). "18th Anniversary Issue". Mugenzai No Seibo No Kishi. Mugenzai no Sono Monastery.
  17. ^ Mention Your Request Here: The Church's Most Powerful Novenas by Michael Dubruiel 2000 ISBN 0-87973-341-1 page 63
  18. ^ "Daily Prayers". Marypages.com. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  19. ^ Forget not love: the passion of Maximilian Kolbe by André Frossard 1991 ISBN 0-89870-275-5 page 127
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h "Blessed Maximilian Kolbe-Priest Hero of a Death Camp by Mary Craig". Ewtn.com. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  21. ^ a b Dewar, Diana (1982). Saint of Auschwitz: The Story of Maximilian Kolbe. Harper & Row. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-06-061901-5.
  22. ^ a b c Doak, Kevin (31 July 2021). "St. Maximilian Kolbe in Japan". Benedict XVI Institute. Retrieved 3 April 2025.
  23. ^ Łęcicki, Grzegorz (2010). "Media katolickie w III Rzeczypospolitej (1989–2009)" [Catholic media in the Third Rzeczpospolita (1989–2009)]. Kultura Media Teologia (in Polish). 2 (2). Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego: 12–122. ISSN 2081-8971. Archived from the original on 5 December 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  24. ^ Elaine Murray Stone (1997). Maximilian Kolbe. Nueva York: Paulist Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-8091-6637-2. city mary india kolbe.
  25. ^ Francis Mary Kalvelage (2001). Kolbe: Saint of the Immaculata. Academy of the Immaculate. pp. 62–63. ISBN 9780898708851.
  26. ^ "Historia". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  27. ^ "SP3RN @". qrz.com. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  28. ^ a b c d e f g Czesław Lechicki, Kolbe Rajmund, Polski Słownik Biograficzny, Tom XIII, 1968, p. 297
  29. ^ Hepburn, Steven. "Maximilian Kolbe's story shows us why sainthood is still meaningful". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 10 October 2011.
  30. ^ "Kolbe, Saint of Auschwitz". Auschwitz.dk. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  31. ^ "Sixty-ninth Anniversary of the Death of St. Maximilian Kolbe". Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Archived from the original on 4 March 2014. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  32. ^ Zdzisław, Kijas (2020). "The Process of Beatification and Canonization of Maximilian Maria Kolbe". Studia Elbląskie (21): 199–214. ISSN 1507-9058.
  33. ^ Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum (in Latin). Typis polyglottis vaticanis. January 1953. p. 173.
  34. ^ Plunka, Gene A. (24 April 2012). Staging Holocaust Resistance. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-137-00061-3.
  35. ^ Binder, David (15 March 1995). "Franciszek Gajowniczek Dead; Priest Died for Him at Auschwitz". The New York Times. p. 39. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  36. ^ a b "Maximilian Kolbe". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  37. ^ "The Calendar". The Church of England. Retrieved 8 April 2021.
  38. ^ a b Peterson, Anna L. (1997). Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion: Progressive Catholicism in El Salvador's Civil War. SUNY Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-7914-3182-5.
  39. ^ Yallop, David (23 August 2012). The Power & the Glory. Constable & Robinson Limited. p. 203. ISBN 978-1-4721-0516-5.
  40. ^ Joyce Wadler (5 December 1982). "Mass Is Set For the Saint of Auschwitz". The Washington Post.
  41. ^ "Czy prawda się zmienia?".
  42. ^ Henry Kamm (19 November 1982). "Saint Charged with Bigotry; Clerics Say No". The New York Times.
  43. ^ Dershowitz, Alan M. (1 May 1992). Chutzpah. Simon and Schuster. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-671-76089-2.
  44. ^ a b c "Scholars Reject Charge St. Maximilian Was Anti-semitic". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  45. ^ Michael, Robert (1 April 2008). A History of Catholic Antisemitism: The Dark Side of the Church. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 154. ISBN 978-0-230-61117-7.
  46. ^ Zizek, Slavoj (22 May 2012). Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism. Verso Books. pp. 121–122. ISBN 978-1-84467-902-7.
  47. ^ a b Becky Ready. "Was St. Maximilian Kolbe an Anti-Semite?". EWTN.
  48. ^ a b "The First-Class Relics of St Maximilian Kolbe". Pastoral Centre. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  49. ^ Catholic Way Publishing (27 December 2013). My Daily Prayers. Catholic Way Publishing. p. 249. ISBN 978-1-78379-029-6.
  50. ^ a b "O.F.M.I. Friars". Franciscan Friars of Mary Immaculate. Retrieved 10 October 2012.
  51. ^ "Sanktuarium Św. Maksymiliana – Zduńska Wola – DIECEZJA WŁOCŁAWSKA -KURIA DIECEZJALNA WŁOCŁAWSKA". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  52. ^ "Parafia p.w.w. M.M. Kolbego w Szczecinie – Aktualności". Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  53. ^ "Niepokalanów". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  54. ^ "National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe". Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 30 September 2014.
  55. ^ UCHWAŁA SENATU RZECZYPOSPOLITEJ POLSKIEJ z dnia 21 października 2010 r.o ogłoszeniu roku 2011 Rokiem Świętego Maksymiliana Marii Kolbego [1] Archived 6 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  56. ^ Silva, Matilde Latorre de (19 October 2023). "'Max', la conmovedora película animada con un héroe real: el santo que se sacrificó por un padre en Auschwitz". El Debate (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  57. ^ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29630418/
  58. ^ "University of Dayton Marian prayers". Campus.udayton.edu. 24 March 2009. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 10 October 2011.

Further reading

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[edit]
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