This present biography of St. Maximilian Kolbe is the most complete one in the English language. The Daughters of St. Paul translated and adapted it from the original account written by Fr. A. Ricciardi, O.F.M. Conv., general postulator of Kolbe's cause for canonization. It contains a most moving, yet reliable account of the holy life and heroic death of this martyr of the Second Auschwitz concentration camp, Birkenau.
Since 1941, when Fr. Kolbe died at the age of forty-seven in the starvation bunker at Auschwitz, giving the gift of his life to God for a man whose place he took, this Franciscan, founder of two "Cities of the Immaculata," has captured the world's attention and admiration.
Although the best known circumstances of St. Maximilian Kolbe's life are those of his martyrdom, they have not obscured his great apostolic achievements. Rather, the nature of his death has shed new light and aroused an ever-increasing interest in his mission.