Free Republic

Cover of the January 1922 issue of St. Maximilian's 'The Knight of the Immaculate' periodical, depicting Our Lady 'flanked by two swords impaling the serpents and propaganda of heresy and Masonry' [taken from Fr. Angelo Mary Geiger's Mary Victrix blog] [The following is excerpted from "Kolbe: Saint of the Immaculata," edited by Brother Francis M. Kalvelage, FI.] "Maximilian's secret weapon...is a medal of Mary that is really no secret. It just seems though it is, as it isn't being used and propagated as St. Maximilian would have us use it in bringing souls to Christ." "The Medal of the Immaculate...

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's words at the abbreviated General Audience today, speaking from the balcony overlooking the inner courtyard of the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo: Dear brothers and sisters! Having returned from Bressanone, where I spent a period of repose, I am happy to meet and greet you again, dear residents of Castel Gandolfo, and all you pilgrims who have come today to visit me. I wish to thank once more those who welcomed me and watched over my sojourn in the mountains. They were days of serene relaxation, during which I did not cease...

(14 August is the feast day of the great Marian saint, St. Maximilian Kolbe. The following is taken and adapted from a booklet entitled "The Crusade of Mary Immaculate," printed by the Augustine Publishing Company, Devon, UK, 1988) The Crusade of Mary Immaculate"...The final aim of man is that to which he tends, and for the attainment of which he uses all means. Our aim is to love God through Mary Immaculate, and in her; therefore, our whole life should used for this purpose. To gain as many souls as possible, this is the purpose of our life; to give...

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...

The Man Who Stepped Out of LineIn this post-feminist age where men are still learning remedial masculinity, we have a model of manhood lived heroically which we would do well to emulate. In the early twentieth century Poland gave us that manly priest, John Paul II, but also his hero, Maximilian Kolbe, priest, missionary, spiritual father and martyr of brotherly love. St. Maximilian’s feast day is August 14th, the vigil of his beloved Virgin Mary’s Assumption and the day which commemorates the conquest of virile love over the totalitarian creeds of his generation. As men, we could all learn a...

When KolbeNet was started, it was due to inspiration from St. Max. The miracles in his life, his love for the Blessed Mother, and his militant love for Catholicism. His mission was to win the world for the Immaculata as quickly as possible. Life in Christ, the life of every Catholic, is found modeled in St. Max. A man who gave everything for our Lord, including his life. Faithful priest, apostle of the media, and martyr of charity, St. Max leads us into the coming times with the light and the passion of Jesus. St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for...

Tota pulchra es, Maria, et macula originalis non est in te ["Thou art all fair, O Mary, and the original stain (of sin) is not in thee" - Antiphon from the First Vespers for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, pre-Vatican II Breviary] The Catholic Church, and all Her faithful, owe a particular debt to the Franciscans. It was this "seraphic order," as Dom Guéranger called them, that propagated and defended the teaching that the Blessed Mother of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was preserved from original sin from the first moment of her life. This ministry of theirs...

Who Are You, Immaculate Conception?Mary, mother of GodFr. [now Saint Maximilian] Kolbe asked this question during a meditation on February 17 1941, the same day he was arrested, just before he left for the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he would die on August 15. Immaculate Conception : these very words crossed the lips of the Immaculate herself. So they must show just how important they were in describing who she is. Fr Kolbe remembered Mary’s declaration to Bernadette on March 25 1858. Fr Peyramale, the parish priest of Lourdes, had been astonished by the name Our Lady gave to...

An anti-Semite? Not Father Kolbe By Patricia Treece There is much that is good about "John Paul II: The Millennial Pope," a PBS "Frontline" presentation from 2002 that has re-aired in recent weeks. Unfortunately, the program also accuses John Paul of canonizing an anti-Semite --- Polish Franciscan and WWII martyr of charity, St. Maximilian Kolbe. As one who was asked by Father Kolbe's religious order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, to write his biography ("A Man for Others," Harper San Francisco, 1982), I should like to respond to that charge. I told of Father Kolbe's extraordinary life through the testimonies...