The Writings of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe - Volume II - Various Writings

Writings of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe #2

by Maximilian Kolbe

The Martyr of Charity, St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe (1894-1941), before his death in the Auschwitz concentration
camp, had a full and fruitful life.
“The Polish-born Franciscan Friar had spent the previous twenty-three years as a priest, evangelizer, media mogul,
social commentator, missionary and religious reformer. His life’s work cut short at age 47, St. Kolbe nonetheless
left behind an impressive body of writings. In the 1950s the English-speaking world first began reading bits and
pieces of those writings translated from the original Polish, Italian and Latin. Now, at long last, devotees and scholars
alike can find the entire wide-ranging array of those writings collected together in a two-volume compendium.
I heartily welcome this first English critical edition of The Writings of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe. Its pages are
suffused with Christian hope. Under the general editorship of Antonella Di Piazza, FKMI, the text has meticulous
footnotes, comprehensive indices, and a brilliant introduction by Fr. Giuseppe Simbula, OFM Conv.
Because the frenetic pace of St. Kolbe’s active ministry afforded him no time to compose a theological Summa,
this edition assembles together the wide scope of his extant writings into a unified synthesis. It represents a virtual
magnum opus of Kolbean thought–at one and the same time pastoral, anthropological, philosophical, spiritual,
ascetical and mystical.
These two volumes give vigorous new life to the prophetic voice of truth of one of the greatest saints of our times.”
(Fr. James McCurry, OFMConv.)

Genres: Catholic

1120 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

St. Maximilian was born Raymond Kolbe in Poland, January 8, 1894. In 1910, he entered the Conventual Franciscan Order. He was sent to study in Rome where he was ordained a priest in 1918.

Father Maximilian returned to Poland in 1919 and began spreading his Militia of the Immaculata movement of Marian consecration (whose members are also called MIs), which he founded on October 16, 1917. In 1927, he established an evangelization center near Warsaw called Niepokalanów, the "City of the Immaculate." By 1939, the City had expanded from eighteen friars to nearly 900, making it the largest Catholic religious house in the world.

To better "win the world for the Immaculata," the friars utilized the most modern printing and administrative techniques. This enabled them to publish countless catechetical and devotional tracts, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine with a circulation of over one million. Maximilian started a radio station and planned to build a motion picture studio--he was a true "apostle of the mass media." He established a City of the Immaculata in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1930, and envisioned missionary centers worldwide.

Maximilian was a ground-breaking theologian. His insights into the Immaculate Conception anticipated the Marian theology of the Second Vatican Council and further developed the Church's understanding of Mary as "Mediatrix" of all the graces of the Trinity, and as "Advocate" for God's people.

In 1941, the Nazis imprisoned Father Maximilian in the Auschwitz death camp. There he offered his life for another prisoner and was condemned to slow death in a starvation bunker. On August 14, 1941, his impatient captors ended his life with a fatal injection. Pope John Paul II canonized Maximilian as a "Martyr of Charity" and “Patron Saint of our difficult century” in 1982. St. Maximilian Kolbe is the patron of journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement and the chemically addicted.