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| St. Maximilian Kolbe catholictothemax.com |
Today marks the feast day of St. Maximilian
Kolbe, the Polish priest who offered himself to die in place of a young husband
and father at the concentration camp at Auschwitz AND one of Spirit Catholic
Radio’s patron saints because he is the patron saint of media.
He also is the patron saint of drug addicts, political prisoners, families,
prisoners and the pro-life
movement.
Maximilian was
born in 1894 in Poland and became a Franciscan. He contracted tuberculosis and, though he
recovered, he remained frail all his life.
Before his
ordination as a priest, Maximilian founded the Immaculata Movement devoted to Mary. After receiving a
doctorate in theology, he spread the Movement through a magazine titled The Knight of the Immaculata and helped form a community of 800 men, the largest in the world.
Fr. Kolbe went
to Japan where he built a comparable monastery and then on to India where he furthered the Movement. In 1936 he returned home because of
ill health.
On
Dec. 8, 1938 - the Feast of the Immaculate Conception - Fr. Kolbe opened radio
station SP3RN (102.7 - it still exists today). The station broadcast sermons by Fr. Kolbe, as well as
music from the friary's orchestra. It is likely that Fr. Kolbe, with his
technical background, was the designer and operator of the station, as well as
one or more amateur radio stations at the friary. He used his amateur radio
skills to vilify Nazi activities through his reports.
After the Nazi
invasion in 1939, he was imprisoned and released for a time. But in 1941 he was
arrested again and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
On July 31,
1941, in reprisal for one prisoner's escape, 10 men were chosen to die. Fr.
Kolbe offered himself in place of a young husband and father. And he was the
last to die, enduring two weeks of starvation, thirst and neglect. He was
canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982.
Please join us
in praying the novena to St. Maximilian Kolbe for the success of the Spirit
Catholic Radio expansion by clicking here.
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