The Patron of Our Difficult Century

On August 14, 1941, the vigil of Mary's Assumption, Maximilian's two-week ordeal in the starvation bunker of Auswitchz was brought back to an end by an injection of carbolic acid. He was the last of the ten to die--on the very feast of Our Lady's Assumption into heaven--a providential, not a coincidental event. His death is the crowning of a lifetime Marian mysticism.

Years later, in June of 1979, Pope John Paul II, would come to Maximilian's death cell calling him, the "Patron of our Difficult Age," in the new Calvary of the modern times. But the tangible witness to that first Calvary is the Immaculate at the foot of the cross. She was not only a witness but in a most perfect way, shared fully in the sufferings of Christ co-redeeming us with Him. Mary's martyrdom is repeated in shared way, in the life and death of Maximilian Kolbe, who in turn became a tangible witness of the power of God's love for our century.

St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, patron of our
Difficult Century

"For the Immaculate One, let us toil, suffer and desire
to die."

"Allow me to praise you, O most holy Virgin Mary, with my personal commitment and sacrifice.

    Allow me to live work, suffer, be consumed and die for you, just for you.

    Allow me to bring the whole world to you,

    Allow me to contribute to your ever greater exaltation, to your greatest possible exaltation.

    Allow me to give you such glory that no one else has ever given you up to now.

    Allow others to surpass me in zeal for your exaltation and me to surpass them, so that by means of such noble rivalry, your glory may increase ever more profoundly, ever more rapidly, ever more intensely as He who has exalted you so indescribably, above all other beings Himself desires."

-St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe