The relics of St. Maximilian Kolbe on display in the chapel of the Polish parliament

The relics of the Auschwitz martyr St. Maximilian Kolbe were installed in a chapel of the Polish parliament before Christmas.

The relics were transferred on December 17 to the chapel of the Mother of God, Mother of the Church, which also contains the relics of the Polish pope Saint John Paul II and the Italian pediatrician Saint Gianna Beretta Molla.

The relics were formally presented to both houses of the Polish parliament - the Sejm, or lower house, and the Senate - in the capital, Warsaw, during a ceremony in the presence of Elżbieta Witek, president of the Sejm, Senator Jerzy Chróścikowski, and Fr. Piotr Burgoński, chaplain of the Sejm chapel.

The relics were delivered by Fr. Grzegorz Bartosik, Provincial Minister of Conventual Franciscans in Poland, Fr. Mariusz Słowik, guardian of the Niepokalanów monastery, founded by Kolbe in 1927, and Fr. Damian Kaczmarek, treasurer of the Province of the Conventual Franciscans of the Immaculate Mother of God in Poland.

A December 18 press release from the Polish parliament states that the relics were handed over following numerous requests from deputies and senators.

Kolbe was born in Zduńska Wola, central Poland, in 1894. As a child, he saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary holding two crowns. She offered him the crowns - one of which was white, to symbolize purity, and the other red, to indicate martyrdom - and he accepted them.

Kolbe joined the Conventual Franciscans in 1910, taking the name of Maximilian. While studying in Rome, he helped found the Militia Immaculatae (Knights of the Immaculate), dedicated to promoting total consecration to Jesus through Mary.

After returning to Poland after his priestly ordination, Kolbe founded the monthly devotional magazine Rycerz Niepokalanej (Knight of the Immaculate Conception). He also established a monastery in Niepokalanów, 40 kilometers west of Warsaw, turning it into a major Catholic publishing center.

In the early 30s, he also founded monasteries in Japan and India. He was appointed guardian of the Niepokalanów monastery in 1936, founding the Niepokalanów Radio station two years later.

After the Nazi occupation of Poland, Kolbe was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. During an appeal on July 29, 1941, guards selected 10 men to starve as punishment after a prisoner escaped the camp. When one of the chosen ones, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out in despair for his wife and children, Kolbe offered to take his place.

The 10 men were held in a bunker where they were deprived of food and water. According to witnesses, Kolbe led the condemned prisoners in prayer and singing hymns. After two weeks he was the only man still alive. He was killed by a phenol injection on August 14, 1941.

Recognized as a "martyr of charity", Kolbe was beatified on October 17, 1971 and canonized on October 10, 1982. Gajowniczek participated in both ceremonies.

In preaching at the canonization ceremony, Pope John Paul II said: “In that death, terrible from the human point of view, there was all the definitive greatness of the human act and of human choice. He spontaneously offered himself up to death for love “.

“And in this human death of his there was the clear witness given to Christ: the witness given in Christ to the dignity of man, to the holiness of his life and to the saving power of death in which the strength of manifest love is made. "

“Precisely for this reason the death of Maximilian Kolbe became a sign of victory. This was the victory obtained over all systematic contempt and hatred for man and for what is divine in man - a victory like that won by our Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary "