Westminster Abbey service to mark 125th anniversary of St Maximilian Kolbe

St Maximilian Kolbe

A service to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the birth of Maximilian Kolbe will be held in Westminster Abbey this Sunday.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish Franciscan priest and missionary, is one of the 20th century martyrs commemorated in statues erected above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey by the Dean and Chapter in 1998.

Fr Kolbe died in Auschwitz concentration camp in August 1941. After three prisoners disappeared from the camp, the commandant picked ten men to be starved to death in an underground bunker to deter further escape attempts. Kolbe volunteered to take the place of another prisoner with a wife and children. After two weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe remained alive. The guards wanted the bunker emptied and the Franciscan priest was given a lethal injection of carbolic acid.

He was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 10th October 1982.

The service takes place on Sunday 13th January at 6.30pm. To attend, apply for tickets (free) through the Eventbrite website: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/service-to-mark-the-125th-anniversary-of-the-birth-of-st-maximilian-kolbe-tickets-51138337143

Read more about St Maximilian Kolbe: www.indcatholicnews.com/saint/236