Raymond Kolbe was born in Russian-occupied Poland in 1894. Both of his parents were lay third-order Franciscans, and his mother led the family in daily Marian devotions. At the age of 12 he had a vision of Mary, then a year later he entered a Franciscan seminary and was given the religious name Maximilian. Studying in Rome he received a doctorate in theology and a case of tuberculosis, and his zeal for souls and Marian devotion led him to form the Militia Immaculata. He taught at a seminary, did missionary work in Japan, then returned to Poland and started a Catholic newspaper and radio station before the Nazis invaded. Sent to Auschwitz, he won the crown of martyrdom by volunteering to take the place of a Jewish prisoner who was chosen to be starved to death.
CHALLENGE
Whenever you kneel before the Blessed Sacrament do you kneel like you mean it? When you pass a Catholic church, do you stop talking, turn down your music, and make the sign of the cross? Today, St. Maximilian Kolbe gives us our challenge: “Be a Catholic: When you kneel before an altar, do it in such a way that others may be able to recognize that you know before whom you kneel.”
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What do Martin Luther, Communists, Freemasons, Socialists, a group of displaced European intellectuals, and a defrocked Dominican priest have to do with marriage and the state of modern-day society? Recipient of a Catholic Writer’s Guild 2022 Seal of Approval, Rebellion answers that question using fast-paced storytelling style, telling you the riveting true story of the war between good and evil that started in the Garden of Eden, and continues to affect marriages, families, and society to this day.
