On October 10, 1982 at St. Peter's, Blessed Maximilian Mary
Kolbe, O.F.M., Conventual, was canonized for his most outstanding heroic
virtues. It is just forty-one years ago that Father Maximilian Kolbe was
martyred in the Nazi prison camp of Auschwitz, after Father Maximilian freely
offered to die in the place of an unjustly condemned fellow prisoner whom he
hardly knew. Pope John Paul II has declared him ''the patron of our difficult
century". We are happy to publish this article to enable more people to know
St. Maximilian whom God has raised up in our times as a model of deep faith,
heroic charity and especially of immense love for Our Lady. The key to this
Saint's holiness is his ever-increasing love towards Mary Our Mother. Saint
Maximilian set no limits to his love for God's Mother and in practice he showed
his magnificent devotion towards Her by an intense prayer life which bore fruit
in a marvelous Marian apostolate during his lifetime, and he continues to guide
from Heaven his Marian apostolate which uses the mass media to bring people to
a greater knowledge and love of Jesus and Mary.
THE MILITIA OF THE IMMACULATA
The Militia of the Immaculata (or Militia
Immaculatae, abbreviated M.I.) was born during a time devoted to earnest
prayer, when Maximilian developed a plan for doing battle with the enemies of
the Church and under the command of the Queen of the Universe, the
unconquerable Warrioress, the Immaculate Virgin. She, whom God had foretold
would triumph, together with Her Son, over the infernal serpent: "God said to
the serpent: . . . She shall crush thy head" (Gen. 3:14, 15).
The Militia of the Immaculata was to be an
army of souls consecrated to the Immaculate Virgin as "Her own property" and as
truly "docile instruments" recruited to do battle for their own sanctification
and for the conversion of the enemies of the Church, the Masons in particular,
who are infernal foes of Christ and the Church.
These souls dedicated to the Immaculata -
men and women, youths and children - are organized in three groups, which form
the three degrees of the Militia.
The first degree are those who consecrate
themselves to the Immaculate Virgin in a way that pledges them to love Her and
to conduct an individual apostolate to make Her loved by others.
The second degree are those consecrated to
Her to conduct not only an individual Marian apostolate, but to serve in an
organized one too, within some small group called a circle, or in an M.l.
association or center, having its own regulations and procedures.
The third degree are consecrated souls who
give themselves to the Immaculate Virgin unconditionally, placing themselves at
Her disposal with all their energies and resources, without reservations,
making of themselves a complete offering to God.
Saint Maximilian proposed to all these souls
the loftiest heights of love for the Immaculate Virgin.
OCTOBER 16, 1917
On the evening of October 16, 1917, at First
Vespers of the Feast of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, Saint Maximilian and six
other friars formed the first company of the new Marian army. Just three days
before, at Fatima, appearing to the three shepherd children: Lucia, Francisco
and Jacinta, the Madonna had asked for souls who would give themselves over to
penance and prayer for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of the
world.
The first response of love for the Madonna -
given by St. Maximilian and the six other friars - was the foundation of the
Militia of the Immaculata. That evening of October 16 in the International
College at Rome, Maximilian had the first meeting with the six other friars.
Three were priests and three were students of theology. They were the Rumanian
Father Joseph Pal, Fathers Quirico Pignalberi and Antonio Glowinski, and
student friars Antonio Mansi, Henry Granata, and Jerome Biasi.
"The meeting was held in the
evening, in private," wrote Maximilian, "behind closed doors in one of the
inner rooms. We had a little statue of the Immaculate Virgin in front of us
with two lighted candles ..."
Maximilian read from a paper the program he
had composed, and all six of his brother friars signed it. The paper read as
follows:
MILITIA OF THE IMMACULATA
"She will crush thy head." (Gen. 3:15)
"Thou alone has conquered every heresy in
the world."
I. Purpose: To seek the conversion
of sinners, heretics, schismatics, Jews, etc., and especially Masons; also the
sanctification of everyone through the patronage and mediation of the Blessed
Virgin Mary Immaculate.
II. Conditions: 1) The total offering of
self to the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate, as instruments in Her immaculate
hands. 2) The wearing of the Miraculous Medal.
III. Means: 1) Once every day if possible
one must pray to the Immaculate Virgin using the prayer, "O, Mary, conceived
without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee and for all who do not have
recourse to Thee, and especially for Masons." 2) Any legitimate means may be
used according to what is possible in each one's state and condition and on the
opportunities that occur. The choice is recommended to the zeal and prudence of
each one, with emphasis on the use of the Miraculous Medal.
"THAT'S ENOUGH, LITTLE BOY"
Meantime Maximilian's zeal for the salvation
of souls was something very much alive and active. He would not let an
opportunity pass by for exercising it, and when possible he took the initiative
to accomplish something good. There are some incidents of this which are small,
but significant.
Once he was on a train sitting before a
gentleman who was speaking openly against religion and the Pope, Maximilian
could not remain quiet. He began answering him point by point. The discussion
soon became a lively debate in which the gentleman was losing ground bit by
bit. Finally, they reached a certain point, and the man remarked, "That is
enough, little boy! You don't know who I am. I am a doctor of philosophy."
"If that is the point," Maximilian quickly
replied, "I am a doctor of philosophy, too."
This reply informed the skeptic just whom he
had to deal with, and the discussion resumed more peacefully. At the end, he
paid attention to the force of Maximilian's arguments in defense of religion,
the Church, and the Papacy.
TO THE GREEN PALACE
"One day," writes Father Joseph Pal,
"he proposed that I accompany him to the Green Palace, Palazzo Verde, there in
Rome, in order to convert the Grand Master of Italian Masonry and other Masons.
I assured him that if the Rector gave permission, I would accompany him. During
the recreation after dinner he went to Father Ignudi and explained his
proposal. When he returned to the courtyard where I was waiting, he was a
little embarrassed, but resigned, as he told me that Father Rector had said
that for the moment such a venture was not opportune and that it was better to
pray for the Masons. Then and there he had me pray with him for their
conversion."
In this little incident we discover the
bravery of a young apostle who felt strong enough with the strength of the
Immaculate Virgin, to approach the beast in his own lair. We admire his humble
submission to the will of the superior, who advised him that for the moment he
should just pray. It was praiseworthy for him to promptly fulfill this advice
and set about at once to pray for the Masons.
WITH TEARS IN HIS EYES
Here is another edifying incident.
The same Father Pal reports: "During
the novena in preparation for the feast of the Immaculate Virgin while we were
both returning home to the College of the Holy Apostles, we passed three or
four workmen who were blurting out blasphemies against the Madonna as they were
getting back to their work on a tenement.
"Maximilian left me in the street and
hastened over to them. He asked them with tears in his eyes why they would
blaspheme the holy Virgin. I made a fruitless effort to convince him that he
was wasting his time, but I did not impress him. He spoke and acted so
vehemently with tears the whole time that finally they apologized and said they
had acted from a habit as a way of letting off steam when provoked to extreme
anger. He did not stop pleading with them until he had managed to calm down
their anger."
"DOCILE INSTRUMENTS"
Maximilian had an ardent temperament. The
thought of the Immaculate Virgin prevailing over Satan exhilarated him. The
sight of the spiritual and moral decadence that was ruining souls, spurred him
to waste no time, to use every means, to try every method valiantly, in order
to deliver souls from "the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pride
of life" (1 John 2:16).
His bravery relied purely on the boundless
powers given to the Immaculate Virgin. Let people put themselves in Her hands
and be Her "docile instruments" - that is sufficient, and this unconquerable
Warrioress will defeat "the children of this world" (Luke 16:8) and the "works
of darkness" (Rom. 13:12).
"The Madonna has no need of us,"
Kolbe said; "but She condescends to make use of us in order to give us merit
and to render the victory more glorious, as it is when won through poor, weak
persons, and with means which, by worldly standards, are inadequate; for
spiritual weapons are derided and downgraded by worldlings.
"We need to submit ourselves as docile
instruments into Her hands, availing ourselves of every lawful means, pushing
ahead through the spoken word and through the dissemination of Marian
literature and the Miraculous Medal, and giving strength to our activity by
prayer and good example.
"Therefore the means of the Marian
apostolate will be to inscribe ourselves in Mary's holy Militia with the
intention of fighting under the Immaculate Virgin's banner; also to wear the
Miraculous Medal as distinctive of the Militia, at the same time offering up
daily as her soldiers the short prayer in which we implore the Madonna's
protection over us and beg in particular for the conversion of Masons, who are
the greatest and most inveterate enemies of the Church."
Maximilian was an outstanding example of all
this. He was truly a "docile instrument" in the Immaculate Virgin's hands,
alert to miss no opportunity to be of service to Her, especially by prayer and
good example. When he was a young cleric and when he was a ripened priest, one
might easily see him saying his Rosary on the streets of Rome or of Warsaw, on
a train or on board ship, on the college campus and in the hallways of
Niepokalanow. He had to have boundless confidence in the value of the Rosary
for saving souls if he would write this little maxim: "As more Rosaries are
prayed, more souls are saved." How encouraging for one who loves the holy
Rosary!
He always went about with a supply of
Miraculous Medals in his pockets. He called them "bullets" or "little bombs" to
open breaches in men's hearts. He had a resourcefulness about leaving them in
places best suited for assuring that people would get them.
One could describe Saint Maximilian as a
perfect example of a truly docile instrument which submitted to Mary without
holding back in any way.
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