Priest and Martyr · Feast day August 14
St. Maximilian Kolbe
The feast day of St. Maximilian Kolbe is August 14, a memorial in the US Catholic calendar. Traditionally invoked as patron of prisoners, families, and journalists.
| Feast day | August 14 |
|---|---|
| In the US calendar | Memorial |
| Title | Priest and Martyr |
| Died | 1941 |
| Patron of | prisoners, families, journalists |
| Next on Bless’s Today screen | None left in the published calendar (through December 31, 2028) |
Life
A Polish Conventual Franciscan mad for the Immaculata: he founded a sodality, a magazine with a million subscribers, the largest friary in the world at Niepokalanów, and a mission in Nagasaki — placed on the sheltered side of a hill, where it survived the bomb.
Arrested by the Gestapo, he was sent to Auschwitz as prisoner 16670. When a man from his block was condemned to the starvation bunker and cried out for his wife and children, Kolbe stepped forward, gave his name as a Catholic priest, and asked to take the man’s place. He led the dying in prayer for two weeks and was finished by injection on the eve of the Assumption.
Patron of
Tradition invokes St. Maximilian Kolbe as patron of prisoners, families, and journalists.
Saints with the same patronage
- St. Joseph Cafassoprisoners · June 23
- St. Leonard of Noblacprisoners · November 6
- St. Francis de Salesjournalists · January 24
Patronages are traditional, not an official list. All patron saints in Bless, A to Z.
In the calendar
The upcoming dates, through December 31, 2028, when Bless’s Today screen shows St. Maximilian Kolbe. Where the US calendar keeps another celebration that day, it is named instead and no rank is given.
Readings
No dates are left in Bless’s published calendar, which runs through December 31, 2028. St. Maximilian Kolbe keeps August 14 in Bless’s calendar of saints: see the saints of August.
All the saints of August Born on August 14? A saint for every day
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