Come to know about the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe in Japan and his love for Our Lady! In 1930, he founded a friary in Nagasaki (still active) amid seemingly impossible challenges and hardships with the help of the Immaculata. This book was written by a Japanese Franciscan Conventual Friar, Brother Ozaki, who, in 1945, entered the same friary founded by St. Maximilian – just two months after Nagasaki was blasted by the atomic bomb. Brother Ozaki resided with the friars who personally knew and lived with St. Maximilian and who highly admired the saint’s heroic act of martyrdom for a fellow prisoner. This engaging book tells of these friars’ endearing experiences and memories of St. Maximilian during those six years – sure to stir interest not only in this heroic saint – but also Our Lady.

Learn the following:

• Fr. Kolbe’s relentless desire to make Our Lady known and loved by printing the magazine “The Knights of the Immaculata” in Japanese.
• His daily trials with the living conditions he endured in the friary – and also the captivating memories of the friars who prayed and worked with him – and who truly loved him. The personalities of the different friars come alive when they tell their stores, enlivening the imagination and fostering love for all of them.
• How St. Maximilian’s love for Our Lady protected the friary during the atomic blast.
• How Brother Ozaki is a humble “proclaimer” of St. Maximilian – though in a different manner, as Franciszek Gajowniczek and see how his humility is the trumpet Our Lady uses.
• And so much more!

From the author...

During the Second World War in Auschwitz, St. Maximilian Kolbe sacrificed his own life by taking the place of a family man who was to be condemned to the starvation bunker in retaliation for a prison escapee. This deed was the sign of his profound love and glorious life.

Just five years earlier, Father Kolbe was in Nagasaki where he had lived and worked for six years. One Polish priest I met in Poland said, "When Father Kolbe departed from Poland for Nagasaki, he was a priest. But when he came back, he was a saint."

Saint Kolbe's life in Nagasaki was indeed full of suffering and difficulty, but it was never without hope. He had complete confidence in the Immaculata. He was as joyful as a child and always positive.

In this book, I tried to reproduce Father Kolbe's life in Nagasaki through the eyes of his fellow friars. Readers will come to appreciate how his life in Nagasaki with the Immaculata was the training ground for his profound love and glorious life.

About the Author