The Prayer to St. Maximilian Kolbe asks for this beloved saint’s intercession for courage, sacrificial love, and strength to face life’s hardest trials. St. Maximilian Kolbe was a priest and martyr who gave his life at Auschwitz in place of a stranger condemned to die, and is remembered today as the martyr of charity. Even in a place built for despair, he chose love, leading his fellow prisoners in prayer until his final days. May his aid be especially near to those who are imprisoned, struggling, or feeling forgotten, that they too may find grace to endure.
St. Maximilian Kolbe’s feast day is August 14, the day of his death in 1941.
Prayer to St. Maximilian Kolbe
Martyr of Charity
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Heavenly Father, we remember Your servant Maximilian Kolbe, a priest who bore witness that no greater love exists than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
At Auschwitz, when a stranger was condemned to die, Maximilian stepped forward and offered his own life in the man’s place. In a place built for despair, he chose love. In a cell built for silence, he led his brothers in prayer and song to Our Lady. And even as strength failed him, he remained at peace until the end.
St. Maximilian, teach us that love alone creates, and that hatred, however powerful, never has the final word. Teach us to see the stranger beside us as a brother worth dying for, and to see our own sufferings as offerings rather than burdens.
Through your intercession, may the Lord strengthen — those who are imprisoned, those who struggle with addiction, those who feel forgotten, and every family in need of courage. Amen.
St. Maximilian Kolbe, martyr of charity, pray for us.