Installation of the First Class Relic of St. Maximilian Kolbe
On Wednesday, March 27, at the evening devotion and conclusion of the Lenten retreat in English we will install and venerate the first class Relic of St. Maximilian Kolbe.
his relic was presented to Fr. Richard for our Parish during his last visit to Niepokalanów Monastery, (so called City of the Immaculate Mother of God) in Poland - founded by St. Maximilian in 1927.
During the Second World War, the monastery provided shelter for many soldiers injured in the September Campaign, and also refugees, regardless of their nationality or religion (e.g. to approximately 1,500 Jewish refugees from western Poland). Father Kolbe was arrested by the Gestapo, along with four other Franciscans and was killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1941, giving his life in exchange for another prisoner, Franciszek Gajowniczek.