"A true knight of the Immaculate does not restrict his heart to himself alone, nor merely to his family, friends, neighbors, co-citizens, but embraces the whole world, each and every human being, because they are all without exception, our brothers who have been purchased by the Blood of Jesus."

Life in the City of the Immaculate

    After having initiated and been  fruitful in Japan, his major superior appointed him as the superior of Polish City of the Immaculate which at that moment reached the peak of its apostolic potentialities. In his return, in a prophetic "instinct," knowing perhaps his end was approaching, he busied himself in giving constant and regular spiritual conferences to the friars so as to consolidate his spiritual and apostolic heritage. Such preparation became the fortifying spirit of the friars themselves. Shortly, the Nazi occupied Poland in September of 1939. Fr. Maximilian and many of the friars were arrested. Their incarceration lasted approximately two months. Upon his release from jail on December 8, 1939, Fr. Maximilian returned to the ransacked Niepokalanow. The Nazis suppressed his printing and publishing apostolate. Without being disheartened, his zeal remained unabated. He quickly turned Niepokalanow in late 1939 and 1940 into a refugee center for displaced families, Jews and victims of political unrest. His solicitude for these war victims did not know sectarian boundaries. He cultivated in them the necessity of forgiving their enemies; for hatred is destructive and only love is creative.

On 17 February 1941, Fr. Maximilian was arrested by the Nazis a second time. Only hours before the Gestapo arrived, he completed his final and most comprehensive theological essay on the Virgin Mary's identity as one who is perfectly united to the Holy Spirit by a bond of love. Soon, in the concentration camp, Fr. Maximilian would translate into practical words and actions his theological and spiritual insight to his fellow inmates so as to show tangibly that there is God, and therefore, there is love and hope even in the midst of hell-like treatment in Auswitchz. Only a saint could stand out of any difficulties in life with constancy and full of determination. Only a saint could influence others to do the same because only a saint knows that true and perfect peace and joy can be found only in God. For him, trials don't weaken, they fortify. Serenity and calmness amidst atrocities were not signs of defeat but of victory for, love is greater than hatred. Thus, such interior conviction of love's power, St. Maximilian, volunteered to be a victim in place of an unknown prisoner. The saint's victimhood reached its full conformity to the Victim of the cross for "no greater love than this, that a man lays down his life for his friend." (Jn 15:12)

The Garden of the Immaculate

But the saint's heart could never be bound by geographical boundaries. He is, by grace, always a missionary. This is true with St. Maximilian. He loves the Immaculate  with the same heart of Jesus and he loved Jesus with the same heart of the Immaculate. It is manifested in a similar universal desire to win all, souls to Jesus and the Immaculate. With the permission of his superiors, St. Maximilian, considering the need for further expansion, initiated with four other brothers a mission in Japan in 1930. At Nagazaki, they established a new "City of the Immaculate" (Mugenzai no Sono--literally, "Garden of the Immaculate"). He introduced to the orient his Ideal--the Immaculata. In spite of local problems with local autorities, language, culture and climate, Fr. Maximilian was able to publish a month after their arrival the "Seibo no Kishi," the Japanese version of the magazine "Knights of the Immaculate." He wrought numerous conversions among the Japanese; most of them thanked him for his heroic and unconditional sacrifice to draw them to the true faith. But this apostolic successes can be attributed to the sanctity and heroism of their love for the Immaculate. Where there is love and charity, there is God.

St. Maximilian in Japan on the occasion of
ordination of some local vocations in 1930's.

"I am resigned to the will of God which I intend to do especially in the most
difficult and critical
moments. The cross is
the school of charity.
Crosses purify the intent-
ions because sufferings permit us to work only out
of love--for God, for the Immaculate One."