Eucharistic Crusaders

St Maximilian Kolbe

CHAPTER 2
KNIGHTS OF THE IMMACULATA

Friar Maximilian had a special way of getting people to believe the Catholic Truths. He would hardly give the person a chance to breath and he would question the person time and time again. In the end, many people to whom he had discussions with would think about what he had said to them. And this is what he wanted, that the person would start to think about the truth.

Maximilian’s classmates considered that he was very virtuous and many considered him a saint! He was very punctual: at the sound of the bell he would stop talking immediately. In the morning he would leap out of his bed at the first signal, even though he was weak in health. He was always lively and cheerful. He showed great charity to others. Often he would spend hours helping slow and less talented students, explaining things very clearly to them. He was obedient to his Superiors even in the smallest things.

Good Maximilian had great apostolic zeal. He wanted to convert all sinners as fast as possible, and all sinners meant the whole world! He did not want to see anybody hurt Jesus and Mary by sinning. Even the thought of sin hurt him to the bottom of his heart.

One time when he was out walking, he heard some bad boys saying some bad things about Our Lady! Friar Maximilian was shocked. Running in amongst the boys, with tears in his eyes, he cried out, “Why do you hurt the Blessed Virgin so much?” After trying to convince these boys that they were doing wrong, the boys stood silent and ran away as fast as their legs could carry them.

As time went on Maximilian decided to put into effect his plan for saving souls. He would often chat with the other Franciscan Brothers about the future of the Order. He encouraged his confreres, “Refuse to compromise, or we will destroy the Order!” In other words, if they did not keep the Traditional Rules of the Franciscan Order, they would become very liberal Catholics! This would never do! Maximilian was not one to do things by halves. He would not even think of changing things.

As he looked around in Rome, he could see that bad things were happening…. There was a group of Freethinkers who began to do terrible things against the Catholic Church. Under the windows of the Vatican, they held banners that had pictures of the devil crushing St. Michael the Archangel under his feet! What a shocking thing to do! And to top it all off, they started to pass out papers saying that the Pope was bad! These were lies of course! That is when good Maximilian Kolbe decided to form a group called the “Knights of the Immaculata,” to fight against these bad Freethinkers. He was very humble and formed this group only under Obedience to his Superiors. Throughout his whole religious life, he was known to have the beautiful virtue of Obedience.

On the eve of October 17^th, 1917, the Knights of the Immaculata held their first meeting. There were seven members: Fr. Glowinski, Fr. Biasi, Fr. Pal, Fr. Pignalberi, Friar Anthony, Friar Henry, and Friar Maximilian. Notice, this was only four days after Jesus, Mary and Joseph had appeared at Fatima where the great miracle of the sun took place. It seems that Our Lady also chose Maximilian Kolbe to help spread devotion to her Immaculate Heart, just as she had asked the children of Fatima to do!

St. Maximilian Kolbe

The Knights of the Immaculata obtained the blessing of the Pope for their organization. Then for more than a year after the first meeting, things did not go well for them. One of the members even tried to convince the others that it was useless to carry on with the meetings! The devil hated the fact that these Franciscans had become Knights of Our Lady and did all he could to stop them.

Poor Friar Maximilian, had a terrible relapse of his disease and was coughing and spitting blood. Because of his poor health, he was not able to carry on with his studies. But he took the time to copy out the rules of the Knights of the Immaculata in order to give it to the Father General (Fr. Tavani), for his written blessing.

Fr. Tavani gave his blessing saying, “If only there were twelve of you, then you would be like the twelve Apostles. You could also spread the meetings for the Knights of the Immaculata among the youth.” Our Lady had also given her blessing to the group, because since that day, many members came to join the Knights, in great numbers.

Friar Maximilian believed strongly in the Communion of Saints. One day he said, “Each time things are not going well, Our Lady calls one of us to Heaven, that he may give us greater help. Here below, we can work with only one hand because with the other we must hold on to something in order not to fall ourselves. But in Heaven, we will have both hands free and the Blessed Virgin Mary will be our Guardian.”

How could Maximilian continue to do so much work? He had such poor health and suffered from terrible headaches so often. Jesus and Mary helped him. That is the only way he survived. Somehow he did pass all his examinations. In 1915, he had already become a Doctor of Philosophy, even though he was only twenty years old.

In April 1918, the First World War was coming to and end. Maximilian was also coming to the end of an era in his life. On April 28^th, 1918, he was ordained a priest in the church of Santa Andrea delle Fratte, in Italy.

The next day he celebrated his first Mass at the altar of St. Michael, in where Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal had appeared to Alphonse Ratisbonne in 1842. It was at this altar She converted Alphonse, a Jew who hated Catholics. After his conversion, he decided to become a priest. How powerful Our Lady is!

A year later in 1919, Fr. Maximilian became a Doctor of Theology. His heart was filling up with the love of God. He wrote to his mother, “Pray for me Mother, so that my love may grow more and more quickly and without limits. Pray especially that it will be without limits.”

Fr. Maximilian was recalled by his Superiors and returned to Poland in 1919. He was worn out by tuberculosis, sick, weak, and unable to work. The Superiors made him a Professor, as he was intelligent and an excellent teacher.

Many of the Friars in the Monastery made fun of poor Fr. Maximilian. They said he was boring and called him a dreamer. They nicknamed him “Marmalade,” because of his poor health. What a shameful way to treat a fellow monk! Though the poor Friar suffered very much from these insults, he did not complain, but prayed that Jesus and Mary would bless his fellow monks.

At the end of 1919, he had a relapse. His fever climbed to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Tuberculosis caused him to become so weak, that the Superiors finally sent him to the hospital at Nakopane. He remained there from August 11^th, 1920, until April 28^th, 1921. From Zakopane he went to the hospital at Nieszaw where he was treated from May 4th, to November 3^rd, 1921.

While he was in the hospital, Fr. Maximilian worked hard to convert the unbelievers. He had a special way about him; a single look, a smile, could help him to win someone’s heart completely. He did very well at this and the students at the hospital invited him to give talks to help make the time pass by faster.

He converted four well-known, bad Freethinkers and a Jew. When the young Jewish man was dying, he asked Fr. Maximilian to baptize him and give him the last rights. Later, when the boy’s mother came to see him, he was already dead! She screamed with anger when she found out that her son had become a Catholic. Because of this, Fr. Maximilian was kicked out of the hospital! But he had done nothing wrong. Mary gave him the strength to resist and he told the director of the hospital, “I can come at visiting hours, the same as everyone else!” His reason was to convert and save souls.

He wrote many letters to one of his brothers. In one letter he writes, “I am delighted with what you have written me, and if you keep your resolutions, you will soon be a saint. But remember, the more we travel on the road to sanctity, the more we realize how little we have done. The faster we run, the more we see how slow we are. With St. Francis of Assisi we must say, “Let us begin to do good.”

Fr. Maximilian was ever trying to save souls. He would say, “Save all souls, and those which will be on earth, even until the end of time.” He wanted the Knights of the Immaculata to spread to all Priests, Nuns and Brothers and to all the works of Catholic Action. The holy priest encouraged, “Our Lady’s Knights must be a living example to others; they must pray, suffer and work. We gain more through suffering than through direct action.”

Many people made fun of the Knights of the Immaculata. When this would happen Fr. Maximilian would encourage his fellow Knights, “All these trials are very useful and necessary. We must be tried like gold in the fire so that our intentions and our love for Jesus and Mary will be more pure. When grace fills our hearts, we obtain a thirst for suffering and the strength to suffer without limits. We also gain the strength to love to be despised and humiliated like Our Lord. Suffering is the only school of love. By our sufferings we prove to Jesus and Mary how much we love them.”

“We will do much more,” he continued, “if we suffer trials and sorrows. If we are weak, tired, attacked by others, have many failures, and are scoffed at, as Jesus was on the cross; then we will be able to save many souls. But we must pray especially for those who have hurt us and try to bring them closer to Jesus and Mary. After our death, Mary will complete our work and we will be able to do much more in Heaven than we could on earth.” By these words we can see that Fr. Maximilian encouraged others to practise True Devotion to Mary, just like St. Louis de Montfort did! to be continued

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