Posted on 08/14/2006 11:55:37 AM PDT by lizol
Poland: Auschwitz martyr Kolbe remembered
By ASSOCIATED PRESS WARSAW, Poland
A leading Roman Catholic official led a Mass at Auschwitz on Monday to mark the 65th anniversary of the death of Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar who gained martyrdom by volunteering to die in the place of another man at the Nazi death camp.
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the archbishop of Krakow and the longtime secretary to the late Pope John Paul II, led the ceremony for the Polish friar whose action during World War II carries symbolic weight for the church and Catholic-Jewish relations.
Kolbe was sent to Auschwitz in 1941 after Nazi officials discovered he had been hiding Jews. He was executed after he volunteered to take the place of a condemned prisoner with a wife and children.
Dziwisz prayed for forgiveness for those who killed Kolbe and called on those gathered to remember his martyrdom. Kolbe was canonized by John Paul in 1982.
A truly great saint.
As I understand it, he doesn't even get a cross marker at Auschwitz.
I wonder why not. =( Perhaps people forget that thousands of Christians were sent their death too.
A very holy saint. It is hard to be forgiving when one ponders the magnitude of the crimes committed by the Germans. They murdered the best of a generation.
When I was there he did... did something change?
St. kolbe bump!
Millions, in fact -- although not all for being Christian.
If You want to see the difference between Islam and Christianity see Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar who gained martyrdom by volunteering to die in the place of another man at the Nazi death camp.If Kolbe had been an Islamic scumbag he would have volunteered to die ONLY to kill more innocent life !!!
My RC church in PA is actually named after him. His story is truly inspiring.
See, now THIS is a TRUE martyr.
Prayers offered up in honor of his sacrifice.
I disagree with a lot of Kolbe's views on Jews and capitalism, but you can't say anything bad about a man who would give his life for a stranger. It is inspirational.
Except for the motive of the switch and its effect on the survivor, this reminds me of the Anthony Hopkins movie The Tenth Man.
great post - thank you
Kolbe has faith of steel, and guts that most men cannot even fathom.
Ping!
I don't know about the cross marker, but there's a noteworthy shrine devoted to him in the cell where he died--at least there was in '99 when I visited Auschwitz.
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