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Augustine was born on 13 November, 354 in Tagaste (present-day Souk Ahras, Algeria), then a Roman city in North Africa. His mother, Monica, was a Berber and a devout Christian and his father, Patricius, a pagan. He was brought up as a Christian, but not baptised.

He studied rhetoric at the university in Carthage with the intention of becoming a lawyer. However, he gave up this idea and instead went into teaching and study. His study of philosophy, mostly of Plato, and later of Manichaeism over a period of nine years resulted in his effectively abandoning the Christian faith of his mother.

Over a period of 15 years, he lived with a mistress by whom he had a son, named Adeodatus (meaning, ‘a gift of God’). He left Africa and moved to Rome to teach rhetoric, and later to Milan where he got a very prestigious professorship. It was at this point that he began to become disillusioned with Manichaeism and became interested in Neo-Platonism. He also came under the influence of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.

In the year 386, he was greatly inspired by reading the life of the desert Father, St Anthony. There is also the famous story of his hearing the voice of an unseen child, while sitting in his garden in Milan. The voice kept chanting, Tolle, lege (‘Take and read’). He opened his Bible at random and the text he found happened to be from Paul’s Letter to the Romans:

Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us walk decently as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in illicit sex and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Rom 13:12-14)

Augustine decided to give up his promising career, give up the idea of marriage, and become a Christian and a celibate priest. After a long interior conflict, which he graphically describes in his Confessions, Augustine was finally converted. Together with his son, Adeodatus, he was baptised by Ambrose at the Easter Vigil of 387 in Milan.

In 388, he returned to Africa, sold off his inheritance and gave it to the poor. He then set up a kind of monastery in his house. In 391, he was ordained a priest and, four years later, became coadjutor-bishop of Hippo. From 396, he was the sole bishop in the diocese. He left his monastery, but continued to lead a monastic life in his bishop’s residence. He left a rule of life which was later adopted by what is known today as the Order of St Augustine (OSA).

Augustine’s intellectual brilliance, broad education, passionate temperament, and deep mystical insight resulted in a personality of very special, if not unique, quality. His interpretation of Christian revelation revealed in his many writings probably has had more influence on Christian thinking than anyone since St Paul. Among his most famous works are his Confessions, Sermons on the Gospel and Letters of John, a treatise on the Trinity and, at the end of his life, his De Civitate Dei (The City of God). This last work deals with the opposition between Christianity and the ‘world’, occasioned by the invasions of the north European tribes and the collapse of the Roman Empire. It is regarded as the first Christian philosophy of history. Many other works were responses to controversies with Manicheans, Pelagians, or Donatists and led to the development of his thought on the Church, the Sacraments, and Grace. Few, if any, Christian writers have written with such depth on love (caritas) and on the Trinity.

While Augustine’s great influence on Christian thought has been mainly positive, his teaching on Predestination has come under criticism. Perhaps due to his Manichean background, which he never fully shook off, and guilt about his own immoral past, he became almost obsessive about sin and evil. He would condemn unbaptised children and others to eternal damnation. He has also been criticised for his teaching on sex and marriage. Even sex within marriage was seen by Augustine as a necessary evil and never completely without sin. At the same time he did emphasise, against the Manichaeans, the threefold good of marriage – family, sacrament and fidelity.

Later Christian tradition set aside his view that Original Sin is transmitted through sexual intercourse or that intercourse is tolerated only with the intention of having a child. The Second Vatican Council made it clear that, in a marriage, sexual intercourse is an important expression of love and union.

As a bishop, Augustine lived with his clergy in a community life, and was actively engaged in church administration, the care of the poor, preaching and writing and even acting as judge in civil as well as ecclesiastical cases. As bishop, he was an upholder of order in a time of political strife caused by the disintegration of the Roman Empire.

He died at Hippo on 28 August, 430. At the time of his death, the Vandals were at the gates of Hippo. The cult of Augustine began very soon after his death and was widespread. His relics were first taken to Sardinia. Later Liutprand, king of the Lombards, enshrined his body at Pavia. He is usually depicted in episcopal vestments with a pastoral staff, but later artists also showed him with the emblem of a heart of fire.

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Commentary on Revelation 21:9-14; Psalm 144; John 1:45-51 Read Saint Bartholomew, Apostle – Readings »

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Bartholomew was one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus. The name in Aramaic, bar-Tôlmay (תולמי‎‎‎‎‎-בר‎‎), means ‘son of Tolmay’ (Ptolemy) or ‘son of the furrows’ (perhaps a ploughman). Hence it has been suggested that it is the family name and not his given name. Talmai or Tolmay was an ancient Hebrew name, borne, for example, by the King of Geshur whose daughter was a wife of David (2 Sam 3:3). It shows that Bartholomew was of Hebrew descent.

Apart from this, nothing is known of his origins. He is listed among the Twelve Apostles in the Synoptic Gospels (Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:14) and appears as a witness of the Ascension in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:13).

It was not until about the 9th century AD that Bartholomew began to be linked with Nathanael, a disciple of Jesus only mentioned in John’s Gospel, and it was suggested that they were one and the same person. In the Synoptic Gospels, Philip and Bartholomew are always mentioned together, while Nathanael is never mentioned. In John’s Gospel, on the other hand, Philip and Nathanael are mentioned together, but the name of Bartholomew does not appear. Still, many biblical commentators reject this hypothesis.

In the Gospel of John (1:45-51), Nathanael is introduced as a friend of Philip. He is described as initially being sceptical about Jesus as Messiah with the dismissive comment:

Can anything good come out of Nazareth? (John 1:46)

Nevertheless, he accepts Philip’s invitation and goes to see Jesus, who on seeing him, says:

Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!
(John 1:47)

This is a remark, which in view of what Nathanael has just said about Jesus, bowls him over. Jesus continues by saying cryptically that, before Philip had called him, Jesus had seen Nathanael “under the fig tree”. There is speculation among scholars on the exact meaning of this statement, but it causes Nathanael to address the man from Nazareth as “the Son of God” and “King of Israel”.

Nathanael reappears at the end of John’s Gospel (21:2) as one of seven disciples to whom the Risen Jesus appeared at the Sea of Tiberias. All in all, even if Bartholomew and Nathanael are one and the same, we are left with only a very small amount of information about this Apostle.

There are, of course, as with all the very early figures in the Church’s history, many legends about Bartholomew. According to a Syriac tradition, his original name was Jesus, which made him adopt another name.

Eusebius of Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History says that, after the Ascension, Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India, where he left behind a copy of the Gospel of Matthew. Other traditions have him as a missionary in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Parthia, and Lycaonia.

Then, along with his fellow Apostle Jude, he is said to have brought Christianity to Armenia. Both saints are now considered patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church. There is also a local tradition that he was martyred at the site of the Maiden Tower in Baku, Azerbaijan, by being skinned alive and then (like Peter) crucified head down.

His dead body is said to have been washed to Lipari, a small island off the coast of Sicily, where a large piece of his skin and many bones are kept in the Cathedral of St Bartholomew the Apostle. In 983, Holy Roman Emperor Otto II brought his relics to the basilica of San Bartolomeo all’Isola in Rome. Because this church later took over an old pagan medical centre, Bartholomew’s name came to be associated with medicine and hospitals.

Some of his skull was said to have been transferred to Frankfurt in Germany, while an arm is venerated in Canterbury Cathedral. In works of art he is often represented with a large knife, or, as in Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, with his own skin hanging over his arm. His being skinned alive led to his being adopted as the patron saint of tanners and leather workers.

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The future Pope Pius X was born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto at Riese, near Venice, on 2 June, 1835. He was the second of 10 children in a poor family, his father being the village postman.

On 18 September, 1858, Giuseppe Sarto was ordained priest and became curate at Tombolo. While there, the young priest deepened his knowledge of theology by carrying out most of the functions of his parish pastor, who was quite ill. In 1867, he was named Archpriest of Salzano. He became popular with his people when he worked to help the sick during a cholera plague that swept northern Italy in the early 1870s.

In 1875, he was made Chancellor of the Diocese of Treviso. In 1878, Bishop Zanelli died, leaving the bishopric vacant. In 1879, Sarto was elected as Vice-Capitular to take responsibility for the diocese until a new bishop was elected, and he held the post until June, 1880. After 1880, Sarto taught dogmatic theology and moral theology at the seminary in Treviso. In 1884, he was made Bishop of Mantua.

On 12 June, 1893, Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal in a secret consistory and he was named Cardinal-Priest of Saint Bernardo alle Terme. Three days later, Cardinal Sarto was publicly named Patriarch of Venice. This caused difficulty however, as the government of the reunified Italy claimed the right to nominate the Patriarch based on a privilege formerly exercised by the Emperor of Austria. Sarto was finally allowed to assume the position of Patriarch in 1894.

As Cardinal and Patriarch, Sarto avoided politics and gave his time to social works and strengthening parish finances. In his first pastoral letter to the Venetians, he argued that in matters pertaining to the Pope:

There should be no questions, no subtleties, no opposing of personal rights to his rights, but only obedience.

On 20 July, 1903, Pope Leo XIII died. During the conclave to elect his successor, Cardinal Rampolla seemed the favourite, but his nomination was blocked by the Emperor Franz Joseph and, on the fifth ballot, Giuseppe Sarto was elected the 257th pope on 4 August, 1903. He was at first reluctant to accept the post but, after urging from fellow-cardinals and deep prayer, accepted the nomination. He took the name Pius out of respect for his predecessors with this name, especially Pius IX whom he admired. He took as his motto Instaurare Omnia in Christo (‘To restore all things in Christ’ – from Eph 1:10).

Many of his achievements as pope were directed towards the fulfilment of this ideal. They included the encouragement of more frequent reception of Holy Communion and the admission of children to the Sacrament from the age of seven (an age at which it was felt children could understand the meaning of the Sacrament).

Pius also worked for the reform of Church music, encouraging the revival of Gregorian chant and, to a lesser degree, of classical polyphony. Classical and Baroque compositions had long been favoured over Gregorian chant in ecclesiastical music. Pius announced a return to earlier musical styles, championed by Don Perosi, director of the Sistine Chapel choir. This led to the adoption of the Solesmes School of Gregorian Chant.

He also began the reform of Canon Law, which would be promulgated by his successor Pope Benedict XV, and the reorganisation of the administration of the Vatican. As well, he gave new life to Catholic Action and pointed it in new directions beyond the merely social and political.

In the area of Christian doctrine, he condemned the error of Modernism in the encyclical Pascendi and the decree Lamentabili. Modernism and relativism were trends which wanted to assimilate modern philosophers into theological research in the way Aristotelianism had been used by thinkers like Thomas Aquinas in the past. Modernists claimed that Church beliefs were in a continuous process of evolvement. Following these encyclicals, Pius ordered that all clerics take the Sacrorum antistitum, an oath against Modernism. He also encouraged the formation and efforts of Sodalitium Pianum (League of Pius V), an anti-Modernist network of informants.

Unfortunately, these condemnations led to the orthodoxy of many outstanding Catholic scholars being questioned for many years afterwards. It took the coming of the Second Vatican Council for a number of outstanding theologians to be reinstated.

In 1908, the papal decree Ne Temere came into effect. Marriages not performed by a Catholic priest were declared legal, but religiously invalid, a move which worried many about the status of ‘mixed marriages’ outside a Catholic church. Priests were given discretion to refuse to perform mixed marriages, or lay conditions upon them, commonly including a requirement that the children be raised Roman Catholic.

Also in 1908, the Catechism of Christian Doctrine was first issued. In less than 50 pages it dealt with questions of faith and morals in simple language, one reason for its continuing popularity. Later Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) would say that Pius’ characteristics were “simplicity of exposition and depth of content”.

In the area of Church-State relations, Pius sacrificed church property in France for the sake of independence from state control, in the process asking both clergy and faithful to make considerable sacrifices. In France, he also condemned what he saw as the extremes of the liberal movement called Sillon (Furrow) and the extreme right-wing thinking of Action Francaise. The latter condemnation did not become public until some years after Pius X’s death.

In 1913, Pius suffered a heart attack from which he never fully recovered. In 1914, the Pope fell ill on the Feast of the Assumption (15 August). The outbreak of the First World War only worsened his condition, and the 79-year-old pope became deeply depressed. He died on 20 August, 1914, just a few hours after the death of the Jesuit superior general, Franz Xavier Wernz.

In his will he wrote:

I was born poor, I have lived poor, and I wish to die poor.

Much of the pomp and ceremony of the Vatican he found profoundly distasteful.

Pius X was buried in a simple tomb in the crypt below St Peter’s Basilica. He had forbidden the removal of organs for the embalming process, a custom followed by his successors.

He was being acclaimed a saint immediately after his death, and the crypt could not hold all those wanting to venerate his tomb. Masses were held near his tomb until 1930.

On 19 August, 1939, Pope Pius XII delivered a tribute to Pius X at Castel Gandolfo and on 12 February, 1943, he was given the title “Venerable”. In 1944, his coffin was opened and, although he had not been embalmed, his body was found after 30 years to be in an excellent state of conservation. Following the confirmation of two miracles, he was beatified on 3 June, 1951.

On 29 May, 1954, less than three years after his beatification, he was canonized, following the recognition of two more miracles. Pius X thus became the first pope to be canonised since Pope Pius V in the 17th century. Pius X’s feast day, initially assigned to 3 September, was moved to 21 August, closer to the day of his death, in 1969.

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Commentary on the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Memorial Readings: Isaiah 9:1-7; Psalm 112; Luke 1:26-38

Today’s celebration occurs on the octave day of the Assumption of Our Lady. In that feast we celebrate the reunion of Mary with her Son on the day of her death. She is the first to join Jesus in eternal glory on the basis that she is the only person, apart from her Son, who was totally free from sin all her life. As the first of the human race in rank before God’s presence and as the Mother of Christ our King, she is given the title of Queen.

The Gospel reading is the account of the Annunciation taken from Luke’s Gospel. Just prior to this passage is the story of the announcement of the conception of John the Baptist to Elizabeth, who was, in the normal course of things, beyond child-bearing age. Now, six months into Elizabeth’s pregnancy we are told that the angel Gabriel came on a special mission to a young girl in the obscure town of Nazareth in Galilee. She was not yet married, but was betrothed to a man named Joseph. Betrothal meant that she was fully committed to marriage, but not yet living with her future husband.

The angel greeted Mary:

Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.

Mary is quite alarmed by this greeting. She is not aware of being in any way special. The angel then goes on to tell her that she is specially favoured by God. Because of this she will conceive and bear a son, who is to be called Jesus (whose name means ‘God saves’).

This Son will be very special. He will be great, he will be called the Son of God, and he will inherit the throne of his ancestor David. He will become the ruler of the House of Jacob (that is, of Israel), but his kingdom will never end.

Mary is deeply puzzled. How can this happen to her because she is not yet married and has no relations with any man? The angel replies that all this will happen through the special intervention of God. The child she bears will be no ordinary child; he will be the Son of God, that is, his Father is God through the power of the Holy Spirit. And, as a confirmation that what seems impossible can happen, she is told of the pregnancy of her cousin Elizabeth, something which in the normal course of events should not be possible.

Mary then bows her head and submits unconditionally to the words of Gabriel:

Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.

This is the high point of human history as we Christians understand it. With that unconditional acceptance of God’s will for her, in that moment, the new life began in the womb of Mary. It is the moment of Incarnation, the moment of God’s enfleshment, of his becoming a member of the human family and making God visible in a special way in our world.

Mary gave her unconditional ‘Yes’ to God’s request and that is her glory. But it does not stop there because it is clear that Mary never for a moment took back that ‘Yes’. She implemented it through all the experiences she would have in the years to come, some of them difficult and painful. And, most painful of all, she stood at the foot of the Cross faithful to her Son to the very end. She still had no idea of the joy to come.

Last week we celebrated her Assumption into God’s glory to be with her Son immediately after her death. Today we honour her not just as the Mother of God’s Son but, because he is now Christ the King, she, as the mother of a king, is a Queen. This we remember each time we pray the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary.

Mary, as Queen, is also Jesus’ First Disciple, having given herself totally and unconditionally to God’s will for her. Let us ask her to help us to follow in her footsteps that we may live up to our own calling to be Priests, Prophets and Kings and Queens in Christ’s Mystical Body.

The First Reading is from the prophet Isaiah. It is a text used by Matthew (chap 4) for the beginning of Jesus’ public life. It refers to the coming of a Prince of Peace, who brings light into a dark world. He brings joy and rejoicing and removes the burdens from people’s shoulders.

The second part of the reading tells how this happens. It is because:

…a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

These titles were majestically put to music by Handel in his ‘Messiah’ oratorio.

The reading’s relevance to today’s celebration is, of course, that it was through the cooperation of Mary that this Prince of Peace came to be born. Her role in the great event of the Incarnation was crucial.

Jesus needs to be reborn in each one of us so that his message can continue to be heard. Let us ask Mary to help us in carrying out God’s will in our daily lives, and part of that will is that we share our knowledge of Jesus’ Way with those who have not had the opportunity to hear it.

Mary, Queen of Heaven, pray for us!

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Commentary on Sirach 15:1-6; Psalm 118; John 17:20-26

The Gospel reading is from the long discourse of Jesus at the Last Supper from John. The last part of chapter 17 containing the discourse consists of Jesus’ long prayer. In today’s reading, Jesus prays for those believers who will come after his own disciples.

After a prayer for his disciples’ fidelity to his word and his mission, Jesus goes on to pray that those who come after them will be marked by their unity:

As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

That will be the most effective sign of the truth of Jesus’ message – his followers living in the unity of that love which was the central commandment he left them both by his teaching and by his own example.

Again he says:

I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Unfortunately, Jesus’ followers have not succeeded in maintaining that level of unity. Over the centuries and down to our own day there have been deep divisions, even to the point of violence and war. Not surprisingly, it has been a source of disedification and disillusionment for outsiders.

Bernard worked very hard for unity within the Christian community. He was a major agent in putting an end to a schism caused by more than one claimant to the papal throne. In our day, too, the unity of the Church needs to be a top priority. It is the most effective proof that our lives are guided by that universal and unconditional love which should mark every disciple of Jesus.

The First Reading is from the Book of Sirach (also known as the Book of Ecclesiasticus). It speaks of the gift of wisdom to the one “who fears the Lord”:

She will come to meet him like a mother,
and like a young bride she will welcome him.
She will feed him with the bread of understanding
and give him the water of wisdom to drink.
He will lean on her and not fall,
and he will rely on her and not be put to shame.
She will exalt him above his neighbors
and will open his mouth in the midst of the assembly.
Gladness[b] and a crown of rejoicing
and an everlasting name he will inherit.

All this was true of Bernard. In addition to being an effective administrator in reforming monastic life and being active in Church politics, he was also a person of deep spirituality who wrote works which are still regarded as classics in our own day. It is not often that one sees such disparate gifts united in one person.

While our own gifts are likely to be far more limited, let us pray that we may recognise the particular gifts that God has given to each one of us and that we may use them for the good of the Church and for all our brothers and sisters wherever they are.

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Bernard was born about 1090 at Fontaines, near Dijon, in France, the third son of Tescelin Sorrel, a Burgundian nobleman. He was educated at Chatillon-sur-Seine. As a young man he became known for his charm, wit, learning, and eloquence. At the age of 22, with 31 companions including some of his brothers and others of noble birth, he became a monk at the reformed monastery of Citeaux, which was then in decline and materially very poor. The large influx of new recruits saved it from near-extinction, but in time, under Bernard’s influence, the Cistercian Order was radically changed.

After being evaluated for a few years, Bernard was made abbot of a new foundation at Clairvaux (Valley of Light) in Burgundy, France. In conditions of extreme poverty, he was, in the early years, too severe on his community. When he realised this, he gave up preaching to his monks and improved their diet, which up to then had been just barley bread and boiled beech leaves.

Overall, he strengthened the status of the monastery with the help of the local bishop. Although he suffered from constant physical debility, Bernard governed a monastery that soon housed several hundred monks and was sending forth groups regularly to begin new foundations. He personally was responsible for 65 of the 300 Cistercian monasteries founded during his thirty-eight years as abbot. From Clairvaux would come new foundations in France and elsewhere, including England (Rievaulx, North Yorkshire in 1132; Whitland, Dyfed in 1140; Boxley, Kent in 1146; Margam, West Glamorgan in 1147) and Ireland (Mellifont, County Louth in 1142). In spite of these new foundations, Clairvaux itself continued to grow in numbers until there were about 700 monks at the time of Bernard’s death.

From early on, Bernard, although a member of a strictly enclosed Order, became much involved in Church affairs and would soon emerge as one of the most charismatic and influential personalities in bringing about Church reform. At the Synod of Troyes, he obtained recognition for the new Order of Templars, whose rule he had himself written. Its purpose was to establish a respectable and dedicated body of knights to fight in the Crusades. In addition, they were to devote themselves to the care of the sick and pilgrims to the Holy Land.

In 1130, after a disputed papal election, Bernard supported Innocent II against the anti-pope Anacletus. With support from St Norbert, founder of the Premonstratensian Order of monks, Bernard was able to get the whole Church to support Innocent. In return, the Cistercian Order, now with strong papal support, increased even more rapidly. Cistercian influence reached its peak when a former pupil of Bernard, Eugenius III, was elected pope in 1145. Both died within a few months of each other, eight years later, in 1153.

In spite of all this activity and responsibilities, Bernard still found time to compose the many and varied spiritual works that are still read today. He laid out a solid foundation for the spiritual life in his works on grace and free will, humility and love.

Bernard thrived on conflict, but it was provoked mainly by doctrinal ambivalence and laxity in monastic life. He criticised what he saw as the dangerous teachings of Peter Abelard, Gilbert de la Porree and Arnold of Brescia, among the best known scholars of the day. He also severely criticized, perhaps unfairly, the great monastery of Cluny and hence, indirectly, the Benedictines’ way of life. The Cistercians were a radical reform of the Benedictines, who were seen to have become too rich and lax. He also intervened in the election of several bishops in Europe.

Inevitably, he made enemies as well as friends. Perhaps the greatest failure of his life was the Second Crusade, which he had vigorously supported. Many were won over by his identifying the cause of the Crusade with God’s will and large numbers rallied to his call. However, the Crusade ended in disaster and much of the blame was, perhaps not altogether fairly, laid at Bernard’s door.

Bernard’s character is best revealed in his writings. These include his Letters, his sermons on the Song of Songs, which were polished and re-polished, as well as various treatises on theological subjects. His masterpiece, his Sermons on the Song of Songs, was begun in 1136 and was still in composition at the time of his death. Perhaps the most attractive, as well as one of the most simply written, is his treatise on the Love of God, which has become a spiritual classic. He was also prominent in fostering devotion to the human nature of Christ and to the Virgin Mary. His affective approach had a deep influence on the development of medieval spirituality and of later spiritual writing. For Pope Eugene he wrote Five Books on Consideration: Advice to a Pope , which was the bedside reading of Pope John XXIII, as well as many other popes down the centuries.

His influence on monasticism has also been deep and lasting. He encouraged monks to a life of mystical prayer in and through the observance of the monastic day. He developed the Cistercian Order into a movement of unprecedented expansion and reputation. At his death the Cistercians numbered about 500 houses almost all over Europe. Despite his failings, his influence on many aspects of 12th-century Church life was enormous, and his cult began unofficially already during his lifetime.

Bernard died at Clairvaux on 20 August, 1153. He was canonised by Pope Alexander III on 18 January, 1174. Pope Pius VII declared him a Doctor of the Church in 1830.

Bernard is remembered as one of the most commanding Church leaders in the first half of the 12th century, one of the greatest spiritual masters of all times and the most powerful influence of the Cistercian reform.

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Maximilian Kolbe was born with the name Rajmund on 8 January, 1894, in Zduńska Wola, which was at that time part of the Russian Empire. Rajmund was the second son of Julius Kolbe and Maria Dabrowska. His father was an ethnic German and his mother of Polish origin. He had four brothers, two of whom died very young. His parents moved to Pabianice where they worked first as weavers. Later his mother worked as a midwife (often without charge) and ran a grocery and household goods shop in part of her rented house. Julius Kolbe worked at weaving mills and also grew vegetables on a rented lot. In 1914, he joined Józef Piłsudski’s Polish Legions fighting for Poland’s independence from Russia and was captured. Regarded as a Russian subject, he was hanged as a traitor in 1914, at the age of forty-three.

In 1907, Rajmund and his elder brother Francis decided to join the Conventual Franciscans. They illegally crossed the border between Russia and Austria-Hungary and joined a Conventual Franciscan junior seminary in Lwów. In 1910, Kolbe entered the novitiate. He professed his first vows in 1911.

In 1912, he was sent to Kraków and then on to Rome where he took final vows in 1914, adopting the names Maximilian Maria, to show his veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In Rome he studied philosophy, theology, mathematics, and physics. He took a great interest in astrophysics and the prospect of space flight and the military. While in Rome he designed an airplane-like spacecraft, similar in concept to the eventual space shuttle, and tried to patent it. In 1918, he was ordained a priest. In 1915, he earned a doctorate in philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University, and in 1919, a doctorate in theology at the Pontifical University of St Bonaventure. During his time as a student, he witnessed demonstrations by Freemasons against Popes Pius X and Benedict XV. This inspired him to organize the Militia Immaculatae (Army of Mary) to work for the conversion of sinners and enemies of the Catholic Church, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary.

In 1919, he was diagnosed as having tuberculosis and returned to a newly independent Poland. Here his main work was teaching Church history in a seminary. After another attack of tuberculosis, he had printing presses installed at Niepokalanow, near Warsaw. Here Maximilian founded a Franciscan community which combined prayer, cheerfulness and simplicity of life with modern technology, as well as a seminary, a radio station and several other organisations and publications. He was also very active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. His movement published its own magazine with the same name (Militia Immaculatae), in which he particularly condemned Freemasonry, Communism, Zionism, Capitalism and Imperialism. Not long after the presses were moved to Grodno, and circulation increased to 45,000. Because of this, new machines had to be installed.

Between 1930 and 1936, he went on a series of missions to Japan, where he founded a friary on the outskirts of Nagasaki, a Japanese newspaper, and a seminary. (Interestingly, and against against local advice, because the friary was not built on the ‘propitious’ side of the mountain, it was spared the devastation caused by the atomic bomb in 1945.) After founding another community at Nagasaki, Maximilian was recalled in 1936, to be the superior of Niepokalanow, which then grew to number 762 friars.

When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, Kolbe, realising that his monastery would be taken over, sent most of the friars home, warning them not to join the underground resistance. During the Second World War, the friary provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 3,000 Poles and 1,500 Jews. Maximilian was also active as an amateur radio operator, attacking Nazi activities through his reports. For some time, his newspapers continued publication, taking a patriotic, independent line, critical of the Third Reich. Kolbe, who had refused German citizenship, was finally arrested on 17 February, 1941, as a journalist, publisher and ‘intellectual’. Gestapo officers were shown round the whole friary and were astonished at the small amount of food prepared for the friars. He was imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and on 25 May was transferred to Auschwitz I as prisoner #16670. In the camp the heavy work of moving loads of heavy logs at double speed was enforced by kicks and lashes. Maximilian also had to remove the bodies of those who died of torture. At the same time, he continued his priestly ministry, hearing confessions in unlikely places and smuggling in bread and wine to celebrate the Eucharist. He was noted for his sympathy and compassion towards those even more unfortunate than himself.

In July 1941, a prisoner from Kolbe’s barracks vanished, prompting the deputy camp commander to pick 10 men from the same barracks to be starved to death in the notorious Block 13 as punishment for his escape. In fact, the man was found later to have drowned, perhaps deliberately, in the camp latrine.)

Franciszek Gajowniczek, one of the men selected by the camp commander, cried out in distress at having been chosen, and Maximilian volunteered to take his place. He stepped forward, saying:

I am a Catholic priest. I wish to die for that man. I am old; he has a wife and children.

During days working in the death chamber of Cell 18, he led his companions in songs and prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe and three others were still alive. He was finally put to death on 14 August, 1941, with an injection of carbolic acid.

Maximilian Kolbe was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1971, and canonized on 10 October, 1982, by Pope John Paul II, a former archbishop of Kracov, the diocese where Auschwitz was located. Among those present was Franciszek Gajowniczek, the man whose place Kolbe had taken.

Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, prisoners and the pro-life movement. Pope John Paul II also declared him the “Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century”. Kolbe is one of ten 20th-century martyrs depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Westminster Abbey, London.

Franciszek Gajowniczek died on March 13, 1995, at Brzeg in Poland, 95 years old – 53 years after Kolbe had saved him. But he was never to forget the ragged monk. After his release from Auschwitz, Gajowniczek spent the next five decades paying homage to Father Kolbe, honoring the man who died on his behalf.

In December 1994, the 94-year-old Pole visited St Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church in Houston, Texas. His translator on that trip, Chaplain Thaddeus Horbowy, said:

He told me that as long as he “has breath in his lungs”, he would consider it his duty to tell people about the heroic act of love by Maximilian Kolbe.

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Very little historical facts are known of Laurence, but his existence and martyrdom in the year 258 are recorded in the very ancient Depositio Martyrum. Early legends say Laurence, born about 225, was from Huesca in Tarragon, Spain, and that he received religious instruction from Archdeacon Sixtus in Rome. When Sixtus became Bishop of Rome and Pope in 257, Laurence was ordained a deacon and placed in charge of administering church goods and care of the poor. As an archivist and treasurer, he was later made patron of librarians.

Pope Sixtus II was martyred a few days before Laurence during the persecution of the Emperor Valerian. As a deacon, Laurence was known for his generosity and care for the poor. However, other details, including the famous roasting on the gridiron, are not deemed historically accurate, especially as the instrument of capital punishment at the time was the sword. The gridiron story is believed to have been derived from a Phrygian source through the Acts of Vincent of Saragossa. Laurence’s own Acts, with vivid dialogue and imaginary details, powerfully contributed to the cult of Rome’s most famous post-apostolic martyr; as did the writings of Prudentius, Ambrose and Augustine.

In Rome, five ancient basilicas are dedicated to him, including one built over his tomb and known as St Laurence Outside the Walls. His name is listed in the First Eucharistic Prayer and, wherever the Roman Rite is used, the cult of Laurence is to be found.

Pope Vitalian sent relics of Laurence to King Oswiu of Northumbria in England in the 7th century. Among places in England dedicated to Laurence are the infirmary chapel at Wearmouth (8th century) and the Anglo-Saxon church at Bradford-on-Avon. Before the Reformation, English dedications numbered 228. There was also a strong cult of Laurence in Spain, which claimed him as a native, and the Escorial in Madrid is dedicated to him. In the Ravenna mosaics (the mausoleum of Galla Placidia), Laurence is shown carrying a long cross on his shoulder and a gospel book in his hand as he walks towards the fire and the gridiron.

The gridiron is his most common emblem, but sometimes also a purse of money to recall his almsgiving. On occasion, he is paired with Stephen, also a deacon. The most complete cycle of his life was painted by Fra Angelico for the chapel of Nicholas V in the Vatican, and there are stained-glass windows of his life in the cathedrals of Bourges and Poitiers in France.

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Dominic Guzman was born in 1170 at Calaruega in Castile, Spain. He was the youngest of four children of the warden of the town. He was educated by his uncle, the archpriest of Gumiel d’Izan, and later at Palencia. He became an Augustinian canon of Osma Cathedral and led the normal life of a priest for seven years, marked by a devotion to prayer and penance.

In 1201, he was made prior of his community. In 1204, on his way to Denmark, Dominic first encountered Albigensian heretics at Toulouse, in the south of France. Albigensianism (also known as Catharism) was a form of gnosticism. It believed in two mutually exclusive powers – one purely spiritual and the other materialistic and evil. The reconciliation of the Albigensians with the Church would become the principal aim of Dominic’s apostolic work. For this he formed religious women in communities who lived lives as austere and devoted as those of the perfecti of the Cathars.

The first house was the convent at Prouille, founded in 1206. Nearby was another for preachers who by persuasion, simplicity of life and learning would win over the Cathars, while silently reproving the standards of the Cistercians sent to preach against them.

In 1208, the murder of the papal Legate, Peter of Castelnau, led to the declaration of a ‘crusade’ or holy war against the Albigensians. Dominic took no part in the violence and widespread killing, relying only on peaceful instruments of preaching and prayer. Three times he refused a bishopric, believing himself to be called to other work.

This work would be the foundation of the Friars Preachers (popularly called ‘Dominicans’), which occupied the last seven years of his life. Dominic’s plan was to set up communities which would be centres of sacred learning, whose members would be devoted to study, teaching, and preaching as well as prayer. He retained the monastic Divine Office, but it was chanted in a simpler form than the traditional mode of the monks. These members would be trained men whose contemplation would bear fruit in the communication of the Gospel. They would be able to move around and lead a simple life, but in a less total and idealistic way than the Franciscans, although Dominic knew and had a deep respect for Francis. Unlike Francis, Dominic was an excellent organiser and a pioneer in shared responsibility.

His Order was also the first formally to abandon manual work, a major part of monastic life. Papal approval was given for the new congregation, but only on condition that it would follow an existing rule of life. Dominic chose the Augustinian rule which was short and left room for adjustments. He then made some additions for greater effectiveness and efficiency. The new Order spread all over Europe and was one of the leading missionary groups in Asia (especially in the Philippines, but also in China). Later, it would spread to North, Central and South America.

Dominic spent the last years of his life travelling between Italy, Spain and France. The first General Chapter was held at Bologna in Italy in 1220. Dominic died in the following year, 1221, after attempting to go on a preaching journey to Hungary. At his death the Order included five provinces: Spain, Provence (France), Lombardy (Italy) and Rome.

Although the Dominicans’ preaching against the Albigensians met with limited success, their communities dedicated to theological learning and teaching filled a much-felt need in medieval Europe. Among the outstanding Dominican theologians were Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, whose influence has lasted into modern times. Popular devotion to Dominic sprang up soon after his death, and he was canonized in 1234.

His usual attributes in art are a lily and a black and white dog, a pun on the name of Dominic and the Dominicans (Domini canis, the Lord’s dog). The dog is shown holding a torch in his mouth as herald of the truth. There are also the well-known cycles of his life by Fra Angelico at Fiesole and Florence, based closely on the tomb-sculpture at Bologna. Later artists depicted him with a rosary, under the mistaken understanding that he was the originator of the devotion.