St. Maximilian Kolbe Relic Tour Begins in US

Reliquary image courtesy of the province.
Reliquary image courtesy of the province. )

The major relics of St. Maximilian Kolbe, who was canonized by St. John Paul II, began an eight-month tour Jan. 15-17 in Ellicott City, Md., at the Shrine of St. Anthony.

The tour, sponsored by the Franciscan Friars Minor Conventual of the Our Lady of the Angels Province, will continue until Aug. 14, the date commemorating the 75th anniversary of St. Maximilian’s martyrdom in the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland.

The pilgrimage will be historic — the largest tour of his relics ever mounted in the United States. Traveling up and down the East Coast and also into Canada, St. Maximilian’s relics will visit 39 sites.

The large silver and bronze reliquary holds strands from St. Maximilian’s beard, first-class relics — something that was part of a saint’s body.

In 1938, the saintly friar returned from a missionary journey to Japan sporting a full, long beard. He had grown it to help his missionary work in Japan because the beard earned him respect there.

“He was the only friar in Poland like that at the time. All the others were clean shaven,” explained Joseph Hamilton, spokesman for the tour and director of development for the Franciscan Friars Conventual in Ellicott City.

“He was on the Nazi radar,” Hamilton emphasized. His superior told him it was better he shaved his beard off so as not to stand out.

Hamilton described how “the brother shaving off the beard put it aside. Maximillian saw it and asked what he was doing.” Then he told the barber brother to throw the beard into the fire. The brother did, but there were no coals.

“So when Maximilian left, he fished it out. By 1939, he was a ‘force’, so the guys knew ‘we better grab some relics while we can,’” Hamilton said.

Indeed, Maximilian Kolbe was a “force” on the watch list. He founded the Militia Immaculata, an evangelization movement identifying with Mary, the Immaculate. He founded “Cities of the Immaculata” in Niepokalanow, Poland, outside of Warsaw, and in Nagasaki, Japan. Religious works poured from the printing presses in Niepokalanow, including a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine with a million-plus circulation.

In 1939, Maximilian was arrested, along with 50 other friars, but they were released. He was arrested again on Feb. 17, 1941. This time, he would not make it out.

At Auschwitz, he volunteered to take the place of an innocent husband and father to be executed. Maximilian died a martyr on Aug. 14, 1941.

Father James McCurry of the Franciscan Friars Conventual and minister provincial of the Our Lady of the Angels Province, explained the importance of relics.

“Relics remind us that saints were real human beings with hair, skin, bones and blood,” he noted. “We venerate relics to connect with the real person behind them — now proclaimed by the Church to be in heaven, from where he or she remains interested and involved in our lives.”

The reliquary holding the strands of Maximilian’s beard also includes important symbols from his life. The base is shaped like Poland, the place of his birth and where his vocation and work first flourished. “Thorns” grow from this icon of Poland, symbolizing the occupation by the Third Reich and Auschwitz. But from the thorns grow a lily, symbolizing purity, and a tulip, symbolizing martyrdom. The flowers tell how God made him blossom like a lily, while both flowers symbolize his love being victorious over hate. The glass case is encircled by a Franciscan cord, with its traditional three knots, symbolizing his vocation.

In 1982, Pope St. John Paul II canonized Maximilian as a “martyr of charity” and “patron saint of our difficult century.” St. Maximilian Kolbe is a patron saint of prisoners, families, the pro-life movement, journalists and the chemically addicted.

How do the Franciscans of Our Lady of the Angels Province see this pilgrimage fitting into the Year of Mercy?

The minister provincial explained, “Mercy — in Latin, misericordia — means ‘to feel in one’s heart the misery of others.’ Moved with such compassion for the miserable plight of a fellow prisoner, St. Maximilian offered to take the condemned man’s place in a starvation bunker. His martyrdom was an act of mercy, showing that God uses ordinary men and women to exemplify extraordinary love of neighbor.”

Joseph Pronechen is a

Register staff writer.

Reliquary image courtesy of the province.