Saint of the week: Maximilian Kolbe (August 14)

A voyage to Japan

St Maximilian was born on January 8, 1894, in Zduńska Wola, central Poland. He was particularly devoted to the Immaculate Virgin Mary and is also known as the Apostle of Consecration to Mary. This devotion was prompted by a vision of the Virgin Mary he had when he was 12. The following year he and his elder brother Francis joined the Conventual Franciscans. In 1918 he was ordained a priest.

Kolbe founded a monthly periodical called Rycerz Niepokalanej (“Knight of the Immaculate”), set up a religious publishing company and established monasteries in Japan and India.