St Maximilian Kolbe
Thomas Kahl
Theology 10
St Maximilian Kolbe was born on January 7th 1894. He was the Second of three boys born to a poor but hardworking Catholic family in Poland. His parents were both Franciscan lay tertiaries and worked at home as weavers. His father ran a religious book store and then enlisted in the army. His mother became a Benedictine nun. His brother was a priest.
Kolbe was a mischievous child often considered wild, and a hassle to handle for parents. However, in 1906 at the age twelve he got a vision of the Virgin Mary that changed his life. He would become a pure man.
He entered the Franciscan junior seminary in Poland in 1907. He excelled in mathematics and physics. For a while he wanted to quit priesthood to join the military, but eventually relented to the call to religious life, and on 4 September 1910 he became a novice in the Conventual Franciscan Order at age 16. He took the name Maximilian and made his first vows on September 5th 1911 and his final vows on November 1st 1914.…show more content… On October 16th 1917, while still in seminary, he and six friends founded the Immaculata Movement committed to the conversion of sinners, opposition to freemasonry, spread of the Miraculous Medal and devotion to Our Lady and the path to Christ. Kolbe got tuberculosis which nearly killed him, and left him in very bad health for the rest of his life.
Kolbe was Ordained on April 28th 1918 in Rome at age 24. He got his Doctor of Theology on July 22nd
