Ryan Enriquez Moral Theology

October 25, 2013

Biography

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, born as Raymund Kolbe on January 8, 1894, was delivered in Zdunska Wola in the Kingdom of Poland. Kolbe was the second of his siblings, Francis, Joseph, Walenty, and Andrew, under the parents, namely Julius Kolbe and Marianna Dabrowska. From Zdunska Wola, Kolbes family moved to Pabianice, where his parents worked as basket weavers. Later on, Maria, Raymunds mother, worked as a midwife and then operated her own shop where she sold groceries and household goods in her house. The father, Julius, worked multiple jobs, being in the Krushe and Ender Mill, as well as a farmer on a small land where he grew vegetables. Both parents were secular Franciscans who took seriously their vocation as followers of the Poverello. Their lives were frugal, getting all they had earned and spending it not on luxuries, but on the less fortunate. They taught their children the importance of religion and the value of a virtuous life which made for a peaceful and happy life. Marianne taught their children in their elementary subjects of reading, writing and arithmetic, while Julius placed importance on not only learning their mother language, but having their love for country. During years of suppression, they have always turned to Our Lady, showing love and devotion. In 1914, Julius joined in the Polish Legions where he helped fight for independence of a partitioned Poland, but was later captured by the Russians and hung on a rope. Raymond lived independently, being a subject to worry by his mother, he was a quiet and docile boy. Upon questioning Raymond, he reluctantly reveals what has bothered him. Raymond fled to Mary and begged What will become of me? She responded, held out two crowns; one white and one red, asking him what he would choose. The white signified purity, the other martyrdom. He chose both. Only the eldest son was allowed to continue schooling, while Raymond was taken in by the local pharmacist who took a personal interest in him. Raymond sought for the day of independence of Poland; soon, a seminary was opened where he had the opportunity to go to Lwow. Raymond was the most talented in class as he dreamed also that someday he would be a military strategist in fighting for liberation of Poland.

Above all, Raymond excelled in the science of the saints. In the seminary, he would always pray before a painting of the Immaculate Conception, where one day he would receive a special grace that had changed his life. After three years in the seminary, he asked for a leave. Raymond was pressured with the religious life and his dream, later one he was given the name Maximilian as being invested in the Franciscan order. Years later, as the Second World War loomed dangerously ahead, the community he was in dispersed, while his last testimony to a select few friars stated that he had been promised Heaven. This gave his fellow brothers sustenance during the war. As he was finally in war, Raymond was imprisoned twice. The last time, he was sent to a Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz. In the woes and cries of the prisoners, one man was set to be shot by one armed guard. In plead of the man where he would not be able to see his wife and children again, Maximilian had broken ranks and stepped forward from the huge commotion, confronting Fritsch. Maximilian spoke out, wanting to be shot in this mans place rather than the previous, being an old and weak man who would rather die in place of a young man who had his wife and children to live for. Maximilians number was added to the list of those condemned to death.

Saints Teachings

In 1918, Maximilian was ordained a priest. A year later, he returned to Poland where he was very active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, founding and supervising the monastery of Niepokalanow near Warsaw, a seminary, a radio station, and several other organizations and publications. Between 1930 and 1936 he took missions in Japan and founded a monastery in the outskirts of Nagasaki, a Japanese paper, and a seminary. During the Second World War, Maximilian provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland. When he was placed in the concentration camp, Maximilian led the fellow prisoners in song and prayer, living hope in their hearts for their despair in their lives of imprisonment. Father Kolbe was beatified as a confessor by Pope Paul VI in 1971 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 10, 1982, being declared not a confessor, but a martyr.

Reflection

As a frugal and virtuous man who started off young with his family, Maximillian truly shows what being a man of God all is about. Back in the day, his family was not in the average or above average class, but they still managed to survive in faith and hope under the troubles of Poland and the warring nations. When Maximillian grew up, his ambitions of joining the military forces never died, even though he was called to be ordained as a priest and join the Franciscan order. He excelled in his studies, and come end of his seminarian life, he ambitioned to work out in missions outside of his city in hopes to aid more people in need. Despite all frustrations and short comings, Maximillian fought for the faith and safety of thousands of lives, founding monasteries and seminaries to strengthen and build the faith of prisoners and victims of the war. This, I admire greatly of him. Maximillian took missions in Japan and other cities, never letting go of what he aspired for. However, after being arrested a couple of times, he was sent to a concentration camp where he grew weak and old. In the concentration camp, hundreds died in place of individuals who had escaped. Perhaps the best thing I truly admire and that has caught my attention, the reason why I chose to write about this saint, is that Saint Maximillian Kolbe took the place of a man who was placed on death row, a young man with a wife and children whose plead were not heard, and replaced him off the barracks. As a man of true faith, Maximillian died for the sake of one mans life, not with selfishness but with selflessness, being written down on the list of dead prisoners. Maximillian died a martyr, a Christian martyr, whose acts were not left unnoticed. This, I believe, is one of the best ways to die, in the name of God and for the sake of someone else whose life is way more important than himself, given that situation.