The Knight of the Immaculate: Father Maximilian Kolbe
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St. Maximilian Kolbe is famous as the saint of Auschwitz who volunteered to die of starvation and thirst in place of another prisoner. But his heroic death in 1941 in the worst of the Nazi concentration camps was only the culmination of an amazing life—for St. Maximilian was fired by the supernatural ideal of conquering for Christ through Mary all souls in the entire world—to the end of time!
Full of interesting stories, this little book describes his mischievous boyhood, his youthful prophetic vision of two crowns, his dream of martyrdom, his use of modern printing technology to further Our Lady’s work, his agreement with St. Therese the Little Flower, his “Cities of the Immaculata” (the one in Poland grew from 19 members to 762 and was the largest religious community in the world), his knowledge that he was fighting Satan, and his prison abuse for being a Catholic priest.
Fr. Jeremiah J. Smith
The Reverend Father Jeremiah J. Smith ([?] - Nov. 8, 2001) was a Franciscan priest and author of the twentieth century. He served as chair of the history department at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky from 1951 to 1986. He was ordained in 1941 and received his doctorate in medieval history from The Catholic University of America in 1949.
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The Knight of the Immaculate - Fr. Jeremiah J. Smith
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Text originally published in 1952 under the same title.
© Pickle Partners Publishing 2016, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Publisher’s Note
Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.
We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.
THE KNIGHT OF THE IMMACULATE:
FATHER MAXIMILIAN KOLBE
BY
FR. JEREMIAH J. SMITH, O.F.M. CONV.
"Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
—John 13:15
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS 3
PREFACE 8
INTRODUCTION 12
Chapter 1 — THE KOLBE FAMILY 13
Chapter 2 — THE TWO CROWNS 14
Chapter 3 — MINOR SEMINARY AND NOVITIATE 17
Chapter 4 — STUDIES IN ROME 19
Chapter 5 — THE MILITIA OF MARY IMMACULATE 21
Chapter 6 — TRUST IN GOD AND OUR LADY 23
Chapter 7 — THE EDITOR OF THE KNIGHT OF THE IMMACULATA 27
Chapter 8 — EDITOR AND REVIEW MOVE TO GRODNO 29
Chapter 9 — NIEPOKALANOW: THE CITY OF THE IMMACULATA 32
Chapter 10 — JAPAN 36
Chapter 11 — THE ORPHANAGE 43
Chapter 12 — INDIA 44
Chapter 13 — RETURN TO NIEPOKALANOW 45
Chapter 14 — THE FIRST ARREST 48
Chapter 15 — SECOND ARREST 52
Chapter 16 — AUSCHWITZ 54
Chapter 17 — THE DEATH HOUSE 61
REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 67
Images Of The Holocaust 68
Views of the Shoah 69
Transportation 96
The Ghettos 103
The Einsatzgruppen 138
Mauthausen-Gusen 146
The Aktion Reinhardt Camps 156
Bełżec 156
Treblinka 171
Sobibor 177
Majdanek 182
Chelmno 191
Auschwitz-Birkenau 199
Dachau 223
Ravensbrück 231
The Architects of Destruction 235
Heinrich Himmler 235
Reinhard Heydrich 245
Adolf Eichmann 254
Josef Mengele 257
Maps 259
PREFACE
Modern times are dominated by Satan and will be more so in the future. The conflict with Hell cannot be engaged by men, even the most clever. The Immaculata alone has from God the promise of victory over Satan.
—St. Maximilian Kolbe
The author of this book declares in everything herein contained his filial submission to the decrees of Pope Urban VIII and to the norms of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, of which he is a devoted subject. He does not allege or exact any other faith than human, based upon the authority of the individual witness summoned.
INTRODUCTION
ANOTHER name can be inscribed on the list of great Apostles of Our Lady. Side by side with such illustrious devotees of the Blessed Mother as St. Bernard, Duns Scotus, St. Louis Grignion De Montfort and Ven. William Chaminade stands also St. Maximilian Kolbe, a Friar Minor Conventual. His distinct contribution to the spread of Mary’s glory is characterized in a title which he gave to one of his publications: The Knight of the Immaculata. In this title is marvelously epitomized his life’s work, as well as his ideal.
In his actual accomplishments, he spread the glory of Mary Immaculate with a chivalry worthy of the most ardent of medieval knights. He had one fixed idea
: to show all men in all places how to love the Immaculata without limit. To realize this ideal, no sacrifice was too difficult: hard work, sleepless nights, misunderstanding, persecution, and even death itself.
In one of his writings, St. Maximilian has left us a biographical note in which he says: I was still a young boy when I promised myself to take the field for the Blessed Virgin, without knowing then how I would do this or what arms I would use.
This took place when he was thirteen or fourteen years old. When he died in 1941 on the vigil of the Assumption in a concentration camp at Oswiecim—Auschwitz—he could look back over his life with satisfaction and realize that he had fulfilled this promise as faithfully as possible. His death itself was martyrdom, not in the usual sense of the word, but a martyrdom of charity. Following the example of Christ, he gave his life for his neighbor: Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
(John 15:13).
In his lifetime of forty-seven years, St. Maximilian Kolbe founded two cities which he dedicated to the Lady of his love, the Immaculata. Following his contagious example, hundreds of young men dedicated their lives to Mary’s Divine Son in poverty, chastity and obedience. He spread the glory of the Immaculata not only among souls consecrated to God, but also in the hearts of millions of the laity by establishing his Militia of Mary Immaculate. He wrote about her in his numerous newspapers and reviews. He preached about her in Europe and Asia. Above all, he ardently gave only what he himself felt. He was the Knight of the Immaculata.
Here is his story, the story of a meek and insignificant figure amid the giants of our generation, the story of a chronic victim of tuberculosis, the story of a pair of empty hands holding limitless ambitions, of a short lifetime marked by incredible deeds and climaxed with an heroic death in the foulest of all Nazi concentration camps.
SAINT MAXIMILIAN KOLBE
Chapter 1 — THE KOLBE FAMILY
JANUARY 8, 1894, was the birthday of Raymond Kolbe, the future Franciscan who would be known to the world as St. Maximilian Kolbe. There were four other boys in the Kolbe family, two of whom died at an early age. The other two were Francis, older than Raymond, and Joseph, the youngest in the family, who as Father Alphonse became the constant companion and co-worker of Father Maximilian.
At the time of Raymond’s birth, the family was living at Zdunska Wola, a small village near Lodz, Poland. Shortly after this Julius Kolbe, the father, a weaver by trade, moved with his family to Pabianice in search of better living conditions. However, the weaving business prospered no better there, so the Kolbes opened a delicatessen store, which for the most part was run by Mrs. Kolbe and her boys.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Kolbe were solidly religious people. In fact, Mrs. Kolbe, born Maria Dombrowska, as a young girl several years before her marriage had intended to become a nun. As it was, after their sons were well on their own, both mother and father made a pilgrimage to the famous Polish shrine at Czestochowa and there by mutual agreement made a vow of chastity at the foot of the Immaculata’s statue. It was, however, only after the First World War that Mrs. Kolbe could see her way clear to become part of a religious congregation of sisters. Until her death in March, 1946, she could still be seen begging for her community along the streets and in the offices and workshops of Krakow. Mr. Kolbe went to live with the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor Conventual, probably becoming a secular oblate. But he left for the First World War, and it seems that he was mistakenly executed as a traitor in 1917 or 1918.
Chapter 2 — THE TWO CROWNS
RAYMOND’S boyhood days were not much different from those of any normal Polish youth. He was a lively boy, quick-witted and just a trifle headstrong. But his mother at one time pointed out that, of all her sons, Raymond was the most obedient, humble and submissive to her