St. Maximilian Kolbe

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar who was born on January 8, 1894, in Zduńska Wola, Poland. He was ordained a priest in 1918 and founded the Immaculata Movement, dedicated to promoting devotion to the Virgin Mary. Kolbe was a prolific writer and publisher, founding a number of publications, including a newspaper, a magazine, and a monastery newsletter.

During World War II, Kolbe was arrested by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. There, he offered to take the place of a fellow prisoner who had been sentenced to death by starvation. Kolbe died on August 14, 1941, after surviving two weeks in a starvation bunker. He was canonized as a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1982, and is remembered as a martyr of charity and a patron saint of journalists, prisoners, and the pro-life movement.