Aim Higher! Spiritual and Marian Reflections of St. Maximillian Kolbe was written in the 20th century by the saint, who was Polish. The book is a collection of St. Maximillian’s writings and documented conferences seven years after the Nazis killed him in Auschwitz.
Aim Higher! Spiritual and Marian Reflections of St. Maximillian Kolbe was cobbled together in the 1940s. The text was translated from Polish by Fr. Domonic Wisz. It was written to inspire Friars better to better live their total consecration to Mary. Do you have a devotion to Mary?
Aim Higher! Summary
As the introduction to Aim Higher! Spiritual and Marian Reflections of St. Maximillian Kolbe states, “When you are preparing to read about the Immaculata do not forget you are entering into contact with a living being – one who loves you, who is pure without the least stain.” That was written by St. Maximillian Kolbe, and the book is about the Immaculata.
Aim Higher! Spiritual and Marian Reflections of St. Maximillian Kolbe contains over 170 pages of writings about the Immaculata and the Militia Immaculata, or an army of Mary. The book is usefully organized into steps readers can follow to become members of the army. One of the nice things in the book is Part 2, which is about Marytown, a village where everyone is devoted to Mary.
The Amazing Life of St. Maximillian Kolbe
St. Maximillian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan Friar. His name was not Maxmillian, but Raymond. He claimed the Blessed Virgin Mary named him. During the German occupation of Poland, he was at Niepokalanów, Poland a monastery that published many anti-Nazi German publications. In 1941, he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. When the Nazi guards selected 10 people to be starved to death, St. Maximillian Kolbe volunteered to die in place of a stranger. He was later canonized as a martyr.
Raymund Kolbe was born on January 8, 1894, in the Kingdom of Poland (then part of the Russian Empire). His father was an ethnic German and his mother was Polish. His parents were poor, and in 1914 his father was hanged by the Russians because he fought for an independent Poland. Raymund developed a strong religious yearning from an early life.
At 13, St. Maximillian Kolbe and his elder brother left home to enroll in the Conventual Franciscan seminary in Austria-Hungary. In 1910, he took the religious name Maximillian and was admitted as an initiate in the seminary. He took his final vows as a monk in 1914. He gained a doctorate in philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1915. In 1919 he was named a Doctor of Theology from the University of Saint Bonaventure.
Kolbe was ordained as a priest in Poland in 1919. He settled in the monastery of Niepokalanów near Warsaw. St. Maximillian Kolbe had a strong devotion to the Virgin Mary, and he became an active participant in the Militia Immaculata or Army of Mary. He sought to reinvigorate and organize the work of the MI (Militia Immaculata). Kolbe helped the Immaculata Friars to publish high pamphlets, books, and a daily newspaper – Maly Dziennik. The monthly magazine grew to have a circulation of over 1 million and was influential amongst Polish Catholics.
In 1930, Kolbe traveled to Japan, where he spent several years serving as a missionary. However, increasingly ill with Tuberculosis, he returned to Poland in 1936. At the start of the Second World War, Kolbe was at the friary at Niepokalanów, the “City of the Immaculata.” By that time, it had expanded from 18 Friars to 650 Friars.
When Poland was overrun by the Nazi forces in 1939, he was arrested under general suspicion but was released after three months. On his release, many Polish refugees and Jews sought sanctuary in Kolbe’s monastery. On 17 February 1941, he was arrested by the Gestapo for hiding Jews. After a brief internment in a notorious Polish prison, he was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.
Kolbe was sent to the work camp. In July 1941, three prisoners seemed to escape from the camp; and the Deputy Commander of Auschwitz ordered 10 men to be chosen to be starved to death in an underground bunker. The man who Kolbe replaced survived and was at Kolbe’s canonization in 1982 by John Paul the Second.
After two weeks, almost all the prisoners, except Kolbe had died due to starvation. Because the guards wanted the cell emptied, the remaining prisoners and St. Maximillian Kolbe were executed with a lethal injection. His remains were unceremoniously cremated on 15 August 1941.
What Aim Higher Taught Us
Aim Higher! Spiritual and Marian Reflections of St. Maximillian Kolbe is a great book for Catholics during Lent because it will enable them to grow closer to Mary. St. Maximillian’s teachings are useful to learn how people preserved their faith during World War 2. He was a hero whose written words deserve to be read.
