Description

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan from Poland who loved Out Lady. She visited him as a child offering him two crowns: a white one for purity and a red one of martyrdom and asked him to pick. He bravely said “I choose both!”. From that day he dedicated himself to our Lady.

Some years into being a. Franciscan, Kolbe spent 6 years in Japan on mission. Under the guidance of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception he founded a monastery in Nagasaki, but by our lady’s inspiration, moved it to behind a hill a little outside the city, and there it survived the atomic blast.

The monastery exists to this day and the gardens have been named a national treasure of Japan.

I love images of Kolbe with his beard because it is the only first class relic we have of him – he was cremated in Auschwitz after giving his life for a fellow prisoner.

The monastery barber (another friar) decided to keep Kolbe’s beard clippings because he suspected Kolbe would be canonized one day.

Kolbe noticed the barber keeping his beard, chastised him for presupposing his sanctity, and told him to throw it into the stove to be burned.

The barber obeyed, knowing the stove was cold because it was summer. After Kolbe left, he rescued the hair and kept it safe.

And now they are the only relics we have of St. Maximilian Kolbe.