Everyone knows I have a cat, but I don't think anyone knows she was actually named after a great saint! Maximillian Kolbe was a priest in Poland who was arrested and sent to Auschwitz during World War II. The story goes that during this time when he was imprisioned, 3 people escaped from the ward he was assigned to. The guards gathered up everyone from this area, and told them that 10 would be selected and sentenced to this underground starvation chamber as a reprisal for the 3 that had escaped. One of the men selected was deeply distressed and was lamenting that he had a family, begging for his life... Fr Kolbe volunteered to take the place of this man, and died in the chamber in 1941. Click here to read more. I think it is such a neat story, so almost 13 years ago, I gave my kitty a very big name!
Monday, February 23, 2009
St. Maximilian Kolbe
Everyone knows I have a cat, but I don't think anyone knows she was actually named after a great saint! Maximillian Kolbe was a priest in Poland who was arrested and sent to Auschwitz during World War II. The story goes that during this time when he was imprisioned, 3 people escaped from the ward he was assigned to. The guards gathered up everyone from this area, and told them that 10 would be selected and sentenced to this underground starvation chamber as a reprisal for the 3 that had escaped. One of the men selected was deeply distressed and was lamenting that he had a family, begging for his life... Fr Kolbe volunteered to take the place of this man, and died in the chamber in 1941. Click here to read more. I think it is such a neat story, so almost 13 years ago, I gave my kitty a very big name!
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Interesting and saddening story. What's also interesting is even when soldiers were carrying out an inhumane task of choosing ten for death, they still were able to be rational and compassionate to the pleas of one man and the incredible sacrificial choice of another...Heck, I just assumed that your cat's name was spelled like the character from Season 2 of Survivor - Colby...
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