Maximilian Kolbe

Raymund Kolbe was born in Poland on 8 January 1894 and became a Conventual Franciscan friar and priest, taking the name Maximilian Maria. He spent years promoting devotion to the Virgin Mary, founded the monastery of Niepokalanów near Warsaw, ran an amateur-radio station with the call sign SP3RN, and oversaw several publications and organizations. When the Germans occupied Poland during World War II, he ended up in Auschwitz. There, he volunteered to die in place of Franciszek Gajowniczek, a man selected for execution. Kolbe was sent to the starvation bunker and died on 14 August 1941. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1982, declared him a martyr of charity, and named him patron saint of amateur radio operators, drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, and prisoners - calling him "the patron of our difficult century."