| During WWII, Maximilian Kolbe hid and cared for around 3,000 Polish and Jewish refugees in the Niepokalanów friary. In February of 1941, the monastery was shut down by German authorities and he was sentenced to Auschwitz. Despite the hardships in prison, Maximilian continued to act as a priest and helped keep his fellow inmates hopeful. In July of 1941, the camp commander chose ten prisoners to be starved to death. Although he was not selected, Kolbe took the place of a stranger when he heard him exclaim "My wife! My children!" The stranger, Franciszek Gajowniczek, survived and recalled the moment: "I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on. The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me - a stranger. Is this some dream?" | | St. Maximilian Kolbe also plays an important role in our own company's history. Before Catholic to the Max was founded, Mark and Gretchen Nelson had a long-standing devotion to St. Kolbe. Mark was introduced to his story in the 7th grade by one of his teachers, and he eventually took Maximilian Kolbe as his confirmation name. Mark and Gretchen got engaged on the feast day of St. Kolbe and named one of their sons after him. When they had founded Catholic to the Max, they were inspired both by the Pro-Life movement and St. Maximilian Kolbe. The name "Catholic to the Max" does not only mean to be Catholic to the Maximum extent that we can, but it is also an allusion to St. Kolbe's name. To be Catholic to the Max means to love to the maximum amount that we can, even if it means dying for another. "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." | |
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