Saint Maximilian Kolbe-Feast Day August 14-Prayer

[Christe Eleison]

Saint Maximilian Kolbe Feast day:

August 14

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish Franciscan priest, missionary and martyr, is celebrated throughout the Church, on August 14.

He brought mercy to many in the concentration camp, including the man in whose place he died.

Maximilian Kolbe was born on January 8, 1894, in Poland, as Raymond Kolbe.
Raymond was by nature a very mischievous boy. One day, his mother asked what would become of him if he continued to be so naughty. That night he asked the Blessed Virgin the same question, and Our Lady responded through a dream. 

Today we celebrate the Feast day of  Saint Maximilian Kolbe, OFM. August 14-

This great saint died in Auschwitz on this date in 1941. Born in Poland in 1894, Kolbe became a Franciscan friar early in his life, and was involved in missionary work in Asia, even establishing monasteries in Japan and India.

At the age of 12, Saint Maximilian had a vision of the Virgin Mary, this vision influenced his great love for Mary. When World War II broke out, he was in Poland, and chose to remain in his monastery, where he organized a hospital and published religious texts, including ones critical of the Nazi Party. Arrested in February 1941, he spent several months in Auschwitz, where he was often beaten and subject to harassment.

In the summer, after ten prisoners escaped the camp, guards chose ten other men to be starved to death. Kolbe heard one of the men crying out, "My wife! My children!" and volunteered to take his place. Kolbe endured two weeks of dehydration and starvation, and whenever the guards came to check on him, they found him in prayer.

He died on August 14th, 1941 and canonized as a saint by Pope John Paul II on 10 October 1982. Upon canonization, the Pope declared St. Maximilian Kolbe not a confessor, but a martyr of charity. The man whose life he saved was present at his canonization.


He is the patron saint of those fighting a drug addicts, prisoners, and the pro-life movement.

[Christe Eleison]

PRAYER composed by Saint Maximilian Kolbe:

O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you.

I, (name), a repentant sinner, cast myself at your feet,
humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have,
wholly to yourself as your possession and property.

Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases you.

If it pleases you, use all that I am and have without reserve, wholly to accomplish what was said of you:

"She will crush your head," and "You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world."

Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for introducing and increasing your glory to the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

For wherever you enter you obtain the grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it is through your hands that all graces come to us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

V. Allow me to praise you, O Sacred Virgin

R. Give me strength against your enemies

Amen