Maximilian Maria Kolbe was an early 20th century Polish Catholic priest who inspired a great devotion to Mary through his preaching and writings.
Two years into World War II, German soldiers shut down the Fransciscans' monastery in Niepokalanow, Poland, where Kolbe ministered. He was imprisoned at Auschwitz concentration camp where, a few months later, he volunteered to take the place of a fellow prisoner who was sentenced to be starved to death along with nine others.
Led by Kolbe in prayer-filled days, the group perished one by one. The priest was the last to die when prison guards, impatient to refill the cell block with fresh death-row inmates, injected Kolbe with a lethal dose of carbolic acid.
Kolbe died on August 14, 1941. His remains were cremated the next day, the feast of the Assumption of Mary. - AMM
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