News
64th Anniversary of the Death of St. Maksymilian Kolbe in Auschwitz
The St. Maksymilian Center in Harmęże held ceremonies on August 14 to mark the 64th anniversary of the saint’s death in Auschwitz.
The ceremonies began at 8:00 AM with a memorial observance of the death or Transitus (passing to eternal life) of St. Maksymilian at the Franciscan church in Harmęże.
Next, at 8:30, the Third Franciscan Pilgrimage set out on foot to the Auschwitz site, five kilometers away.
Mass was said at 10:30 at the Death Block by Tadeusz Rakoczy, the bishop of the Bielsko-Żywiec diocese.
Maksymilian Maria Kolbe
Deported to Auschwitz in a transport from Warsaw on May 28, 1941, Maksymilian Maria Kolbe (no. 16670) of the Conventual Franciscan Order of Minor Brothers voluntarily chose death several weeks later in place of a stranger, who was the father of a family.
On July 29, 1941, camp director Fritzsch (in the absence of commandant Hoess), in reprisal for the escape of a prisoner, chose ten prisoners from Block no. 14 and sentenced them to death by starvation. When the selection was completed, Father Maksymilian stepped forward and volunteered to die in place of one of the men, Franciszek Gajowniczek (no. 5659). On August 14, 1941, the vigil of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, prisoner Hans Bock (no. 5), block elder in the camp hospital for prisoners, killed Kolbe with a lethal injection of phenol in the underground death cell of Block no. 11, where Kolbe had spent the last two weeks.
Pope Paul VI beatified Father Kolbe in 1971, and John Paul II canonized him on October 10, 1982.
