St. Maximilian Kolbe
He stepped out of the line and asked to take another man's place.
Maximilian was a Polish friar who ran a printing operation and, when the war came, hid around two thousand Jewish refugees in his friary. The Nazis arrested him for it and sent him to Auschwitz.
A prisoner escaped that summer, and the rule was that ten men from his block would be killed for it. The guards walked the line and picked. One of the chosen men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out about his wife and his children.
Maximilian stepped forward and asked to go instead. The guards allowed the swap, which they did not have to do. Gajowniczek lived to be ninety three, and he spent the rest of his life telling people what happened.
St. Maximilian Kolbe facts for kids
- He hid roughly 2,000 Jewish refugees at his friary in Niepokalanów
- The man he saved, Franciszek Gajowniczek, survived the war and lived to 93
- Gajowniczek was at his canonization in 1982
- Patron of prisoners, families, and journalists
Feast day: August 14 · Patron of prisoners and families
St. Maximilian, make me the kind of person who steps forward.