Shaft of Light in the Darkness

SOURCE:  "Maximillian Kolbe: A Subversive Priest" by Elizabeth Scalia. Word on Fire. August 14, 2020. 

https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/blog/maxmillian-kolbe-a-most-subversive-priest/28125/

KEYWORDS:  Courage, Faith, Substitution, Redemption, Witness, Love

Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish priest who died as prisoner 16770 in Auschwitz, on August 14, 1941. When a prisoner escaped from the camp, the Nazis selected 10 others to be killed by starvation in reprisal for the escape. One of the 10 selected to die, Franciszek Gajowniczek, began to cry: My wife! My children! I will never see them again! At this Maximilian Kolbe stepped forward and asked to die in his place. His request was granted.

A survivor,  Jerzy Bielecki, called Kolbe’s action “a shock filled with hope, bringing new life and strength. . . . It was like a powerful shaft of light in the darkness of the camp.”

Read the whole article.