The Theologian of Auschwitz

A relatively large and extraordinarily important section of the writings and reportings of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe is filled by outlines and materials for a book length study, profoundly dogmatic and eminently practical,on the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. This project, conceived as early as 1919, was in gestation for nearly ten years—at first slowly, then after 1939, more intensely—up to the time of his final arrest on 17 February 1941. On account of his subsequent martyrdom in the concentration camp of Oswiecim (Auschwitz) on the vigil of the Assumption, 14 August 1941, it remained unfinished.

No thorough study primarily dedicated to an analysis and appreciation of this unfinished work of genius has yet to be published. The present work was undertaken to honor the hero of Auschwitz and Martyr of Charity during the twenty-fifth anniversary of his canonization (2007). St. Maximilian is, in a sense, a “re-founder” of the Order of Friars Minor during the second page of its history, one who is worthy to be numbered among its great Doctors.