“Hate is not a creative force. Love is a creative force.”
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Maximilian Kolbe
Maximilian Maria Kolbe, OFM Conv. was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar, priest, missionary, and martyr. He volunteered to die in place of a man named Franciszek Gajowniczek in the German death camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II. He had been active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, founding and supervising the monastery of Niepokala…
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culture · Polish Franciscan friar and saint (1894–1941) · resistance fighter · regular priest · amateur radio operator · preacher · confessor · theologian · newspaper proprietor · publisher · writer · Roman Catholic cleric · also Maximilian Kolbe, Maximilian Maria Kolbe, Maksymilian Maria Kolbe, Raimund Kolbe, Father Maximilian, Kolbe, Maximillian
Born 8 January 1894 · Died 14 August 1941 · Q153850
54 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 23 entries
“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.”
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“No one in the world can change Truth. What we can do and should do is to seek truth and to serve it when we have found it. The real conflict is the inner conflict. Beyond armies of occupation and the hetacombs of extermination camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love. And what use are the victories on the battlefield if we are ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?”
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“I want to be the greatest. But in what? In loving people and loving God!”
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“Why do many today try to convince themselves and others that God does not exist, even though they know perfectly well that not even the effort exercised by all scientists put together can bring to life a miserable mosquito? To affirm everything originates by pure, unexplainable chance is utter absurdity; as if one could think that a simple clock has been assembled, simply by chance, without the help of someone!”
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“There is much evil in the world, but let us remember that the Immaculata is more powerful and 'she shall crush the head of the serpent' [cf. Gn 3:15].”
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“I am not able to believe that man is a perfected ape. We are dealing here with the problem of evolutionism...This theory not only does not accord with the findings of contemporary experimental sciences, which are in continuous development, but they even contradict them, as has been accurately ascertained. The same Darwin, in the beginning, did not affirm that man descends from apes, but only presented a theory that man might descend from the apes, as a hypothesis.”
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“External activity is good; but, it is obviously of secondary importance and lesser still in comparison with the interior life, the life of recollection and of prayer, with the life of our personal love towards God”
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“s death equated to earlier examples of religious martyrdom. Accusations of antisemitism Kolbe”
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EWTN News: 10,000 People Gather for St. Maximilian Kolbe-Inspired Festival in Poland | EWTN News Nightly
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Where Peter Is: Maximilian Kolbe: The Man Who Would Not Keep Silent
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Catholic Time: Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Who Gave His Life for a Prisoner at Auschwitz
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EWTN UK: Why St Maximilian Kolbe Gave His Life for a Stranger – EWTN Great Britain
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Catholic World Report: St. Maximilian Kolbe’s weapon for evangelization: the Miraculous Medal
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Public attention spiked: 16,943 Wikipedia readers in one day, 17.6× the usual 963, with 1 article edits. Coverage that week: “Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Who Gave His Life for a Prisoner at Auschwitz” (Catholic Time).
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Rome Reports: Saint Maximilian Kolbe: The Martyr Who Gave His Life for Another at Auschwitz
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aleteia.org: Why St. Maximilian Kolbe wanted to make movies and TV shows
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UA.NEWS: Holiday on August 14, 2026 — St. Maximilian Kolbe Day: History, Heroic Deeds, and Prayers
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Florida Catholic Media: Saint Maximilian Kolbe | Saint of the Day
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Independent Catholic News: Gospel in Art: Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest, Martyr
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Domradio: Vor 85 Jahren starb Maximilian Kolbe
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Radio Veritas Asia: St. Maximilian Kolbe
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DOMRADIO.DE: Papst Leo XIV. erinnert an Maximilian Kolbe
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2025· 1 entry
noz: Pater Maximilian Kolbe ging für Familienvater in den Hungerbunker
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2023· 2 entries
National Catholic Register: What Happened to St. Maximilian Kolbe’s Beard? The Answer May Surprise You
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The Mexican production company Dos Corazones Films released the animated feature film Max, which recounts part of Kolbe's life
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2022· 1 entry
dbk.de: Gedenken an Maximilian Kolbe in Oświęcim/Auschwitz
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2021· 2 entries
National Catholic Reporter: Maximilian Kolbe merchandise under fire for insensitivity about Holocaust
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ORF: Kirche erinnert in Auschwitz an Maximilian Kolbe
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2019· 1 entry
Katholische Kirche in Deutschland: Maximilian Kolbe: Vorbild für die deutsch-polnische Versöhnung
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2015· 2 entries
National Catholic Register: Priest-Friend of St. Maximilian Kolbe: ‘You Wanted to Imitate Him’
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Katholische Kirche in Deutschland: Maximilian Kolbe: Nächstenliebe bis in den Tod
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2000· 1 entry
The National Conference of Catholic Bishops (US) designated Marytown in Libertyville, Illinois home to a community of Conventual Franciscan friars, as the National Shrine of St
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1991· 1 entry
Krzysztof Zanussi released a biographical Polish film about Kolbe, Life for Life: Maximilian Kolbe, with Edward Żentara as Kolbe
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1971· 1 entry
More than 1,000 such relics have been distributed around the world for public veneration
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1963· 1 entry
Rolf Hochhuth published The Deputy, a play influenced by Kolbe's life, and dedicated to him
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1941· 1 entry
Died 1941-08-14.
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1939· 1 entry
Kolbe wrote, Atheistic Communism seems to rage ever more wildly
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1938· 2 entries
In ‘Maly Dziennik’, Kolbe argued, ‘Jewry has harmed and continues to harm us all the time, it is eating into the body of the nation like a cancer
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Started a radio station at Niepokalanów, Radio Niepokalanów
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1933· 1 entry
For a general chapter of the order in Kraków
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1931· 1 entry
Kolbe founded a Franciscan monastery, Mugenzai no Sono (無原罪の園, transl
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1930· 1 entry
In Shanghai, then part of the Republic of China
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1927· 1 entry
Founded a new Conventual Franciscan monastery at Niepokalanów near Warsaw
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1926· 2 entries
“as an organized clique of fanatical Jews, who want to destroy the church.”
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In the first issue of the monthly Knight of the Immaculate, Kolbe said he considered Freemasons "as an organized clique of fanatical Jews, who want to destroy the church
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1922· 1 entry
A recurrence of tuberculosis forced Kolbe to leave the seminary
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1918· 1 entry
Kolbe was ordained a priest
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1912· 1 entry
To attend the Pontifical Gregorian University
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1911· 1 entry
And his final vows in 1914, adopting the additional name of Maria (Mary)
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1910· 1 entry
The Franciscans allowed Raymund Kolbe to enter the novitiate, where he chose a religious name, Maximilian
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1907· 1 entry
Kolbe and his elder brother Francis joined the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, known as the Conventual Franciscans
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1903· 1 entry
When he was age nine, Kolbe experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary
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1894· 1 entry
Born 1894-01-08.
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