Saint Maximilian Kolbe – Ever heard of him? We will see what is so special about him that he was canonized on 10th October 1982. He is also known as Maksymilian or Massimiliano Maria Kolbe and “Apostle of Consecration to Mary,” while he was born with the name Rajmund Kolbe.

Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland.

During the Second World War he provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews whom he hid from Nazi persecution in his friary in Niepokalanów. He was also active as a radio amateur, with Polish call letters SP3RN, vilifying Nazi activities through his reports.On 17 February 1941 he was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and on May 28 he was transferred to Auschwitz as prisoner #16670.

In July 1941 a man from Kolbe’s barracks vanished, prompting SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the deputy camp commander, to pick 10 men from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 13 (notorious for torture), in order to deter further escape attempts (the man who had disappeared was later found drowned in the camp latrine). One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family, and Kolbe volunteered to take his place.

During the time in the cell he led the men in songs and prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe and three others were still alive. He encouraged others that they would soon be with Mary in Heaven. Each time the guards checked on him he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looking calmly at those who entered.

When the remaining men had died and Kolbe was the last remaining he was killed with an injection of carbolic acid. Some who were present at the injection say that he raised his left arm and calmly waited for the injection. His remains were cremated on the Assumption of Mary (August, 15).

Father Kolbe was beatified as a confessor by Pope Paul VI in 1971 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 10 October 1982 in the presence of Franciszek Gajowniczek. Upon canonization, the Pope declared St. Maximilian Kolbe not a confessor, but a martyr. St. Maximilian’s beatification miracle was the July 1948 cure of intestinal tuberculosis in Angela Testoni, and in August 1950, the cure of calcification of the arteries/sclerosis of Francis Ranier was attributed to the intercession of St. Maximilian.

The Immaculata prayer by Saint Maximillian Kolbe

Tags: heaven, mary, prayer, Saint, virgin mary

Hey this is Aditya Tawde. After the Horrible attacks that took place in Mumbai on 26/11 last year, the entire  city is in shock . I recently visited the restaurant named ‘Leopold’ where the terrorists had their food & after a few moments began firing . I saw the holes made by the bullets in the walls & glass of the window which is still kept as it is  in the restaurant as a sign of remembrance of this horrible attack . According to most Indians,  Mumbai is the safest place in India ; but are we really safe out here ??? What are we supposed to do ??? Can’t sit in our houses 365 days so that we can be safe . We need to take our Shield( the Brown Scapular) & our Weapon( The Rosary) with us & use it daily .

THERE’S SOMETHING MORE POWERFUL THAN THE AK47

An American couple caught up in the Mumbai massacres has revealed how praying the rosary saw them through the ordeal.

As gunmen wandered the Taj Mahal hotel shooting indiscriminately, William and Geraldine Stadelmann of Boston followed security advice and sealed their room before hiding under the bed where they turned to their faith to cope with unfolding events.

In an interview carried in The Pilot, the Boston archdiocesan newspaper, the Stadlemann’s related how, when they dared not venture out to fetch a rosary from Mrs Stadelmann’s bag, she began to keep count of her prayers on her knuckles.

”Of the 15 hours, my wife was saying the rosary for, I’d say, 14 and a half hours,” Mr Stadlemann said.

Throughout that time, Mr Stadelmann added, the couple listened as the gunman worked along their corridor, seeking hidden guests. ”They would blow the door open and start shooting everyone inside,” he said.

As the siege continued, Mr Stadelmann was able to use his laptop to contact relatives and friends in the United States, who also offered prayers for their safety. Then, as the battle eventually turned against the attackers, and with the hotel ablaze, it was Indian commandos who finally reached the Stadelmann’s and escorted them to safety.

On the way, Mr Stadelmann explained, they moved past the bodies of shooting victims, some of them known to the couple. Mrs Stadelmann insisted on stopping to make a sign of the cross over each one before they finally reached the safety of police lines.

Attributing their survival to the power of prayer, Mr Stadelmann said, ”We have a tremendous faith and we were getting prayers from all over the place.” In all, over 170 people perished in the three days of fighting launched by 10 militants.

——————————-    —————————–      —————————

EVIDENCE FROM THE PAST

1.  St. Dominic got the revelation from Mary & crushed the Albigensian heresy only through the recitation of the ROSARY

2 . The Battle of Lepanto 1571 was miraculously won by the recitation of the ROSARY. Historians still can not find why the turks who were thrice in proportion to the small Catholic fleet could not win the battle . In between a meeting with the cardinals Pope Pius V interrupted the meeting & went to pray the ROSARY. At the end of his prayer he came & announced the Victory of the Catholic Army over the turks . How did he know they had won ???? Cell phone ?? there were none at that time . It was Divine revelation

3. When the saintly Pius VII was taken captive by Napolean & subjected to indignities & sufferings, it was our Divine Mother that consoled & strengthened him , so that on 24th May 1814 he was able to return in triumph to his See in Rome . The pope in gratitude for delivery from his bondage,established the feast of “Mary Help of Christians” on 24th May. Again the Queen of the ROSARY comes in picture

4. Miracle of the Sun at Fatima, 1917 – The most well known miracle which is associated with the Rosary is the miracle related to the appearances of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal in 1917. Here three children claimed a lady appeared to them on multiple occasions, referring to herself as the “Lady of the Rosary”, asking that they “pray the Rosary every day” and asking the three children to give other messages to the people of the world. Since people would most likely not believe the children regarding these appearances, the “Lady of the Rosary” promised to perform a public miracle as proof. At her final appearance to the children in October 1917, over 70,000 people gathered at the site of the appearances in expectation of the miracle the children mentioned she would perform. That afternoon, an unexplainable miracle of the sun was experienced by over 70,000 people. This was printed in Fatima newspapers the following day which gave credence to the message the Virgin Mary gave to the three children.

5. Rosary Miracle at Hiroshima – August 6th, 1945 – There was a home eight blocks (about 1 kilometer) from where the A-Bomb went off in Hiroshima Japan. This home had a church attached to it which was completely destroyed, but the home survived, and so did the eight German Jesuit missionaries who prayed the rosary in that house faithfully every day

6. Russians Pullout of Austria, 1948 – After World War ll. the Allies turned over Catholic Austria to communist Russia. For three years the Austrian people endured this tyranny. Then, a Franciscan priest, Father Petrus, remembered how the Christians although greatly outnumbered had defeated the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto through the Rosary, and he launched a Rosary crusade. Through it 70,000 people, one tenth of the Austrian population, pledged to say the Rosary daily for the Soviets to leave their country. Austria was valuable to the Russians because of its strategic location, rich mineral deposits and oil reserves. Yet on May 13, 1955, the anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Fatima, the Russians signed the agreement to leave Austria, and they did so without one person being killed and without one shot being fired. It is the only time that the militant atheistic forces of Marxism have ever peacefully left a country in which they held power. Military strategists and historians are baffled as to why the Russians pulled out. But we are not – it was the power of the Rosary. This is just one of countless stories about the power of the Rosary!

7. The Country That Saved Itself – Brazil 1962 – In 1962 there was a looming threat of communist takeover in Brazil. A woman there named Dona Amelia Bastos was known to have formed a Rosary rally among the Brazilian women there to do their part in opposing the looming threat. Their goal was simply to pray the Rosary in large groups asking the Virgin Mary for help in opposing the Communist takeover which the President of Brazil was leaning toward at the time. In Belo Horizonte 20,000 women reciting the rosary aloud broke up a Communist rally. In Sao Paulo, 600,000 women praying the rosary in one of the most moving demonstrations in Brazilian history, caused the President of Brazil to flee the country and not a single death was encountered, sparing the country from Communist takeover.

LAST & MOST IMPORTANT EVIDENCE : THE MOTHER OF JESUS PROMISED ST. DOMINIC THAT, “ONE DAY THROUGH THE ROSARY & SCAPULAR I SHALL SAVE THE WORLD !”
&
AT FATIMA 1917 SHE SAID : ” PRAY THE ROSARY DAILY TO OBTAIN PEACE IN THE WORLD & END OF WAR “

- – - written by Aditya Tawde