Death of a martyr
What purpose is served by martyrdom?
If you sacrifice your life for me
is not death still waiting to claim me nevertheless?
If you choose to live in poverty
does that make me any the richer?
If you choose to go hungry
does your choice ease the hunger of any of the world's starving?
Should we not rather
remove the causes of poverty, of starvation, of untimely death, of the need for martyrs?
My name is Francis Gajowniczek.
I was a sergeant in the Polish army when the Nazis came and took me,
and threw me into Oswiecim concentration camp,
the place the world calls Auschwitz.
I had a wife and child on the outside like many others.
One of our number managed to escape to be with his family.
The Nazis decided to make an example by throwing ten of us into a small cell and starving us to death.
When I protested that I would never see my wife and child again
another man volunteered to take my place.
His name was Maximilian Kolbe.
He was a Catholic priest.
It was July28, 1941.
He was placed in the basement bunker of Block 13.
On August 14 he was given a lethal injection of phenol because the Nazi commander, Fritsch, thought he was taking too long to die.
What purpose is served by martyrdom?
If you sacrifice your life for me
is not death still waiting to claim me nevertheless?
If you choose to live in poverty
does that make me any the richer?
If you choose to go hungry
does your choice ease the hunger of any of the world's starving?
Should we not rather
remove the causes of poverty, of starvation, of untimely death, of the need for martyrs?
Long years later, in 1982,
I was present when Maximilian Kolbe was canonised by Pope John Paul II, formerly Archbishop of Cracow, the diocese which contains Auschwitz,
and named a saint.
I am a simple man, unversed in theological matters,
but when the Holy Father told his story,
it gave me pause for thought.
I didn't know this man.
He gave his life for me, not knowing whether the next day I would live or die,
or what purpose his sacrifice might serve;
more important, he had given his life to the cause of the poor and the oppressed.
He was born Raymond Kolbe in Zdunska Wola, near Lodz, in Russian-occupied Poland on January 8, 1894.
His parents were poor people, working in cottage weaving.
In 1902 they moved to Pabianice, looking for work. He received his first Communion in the parish church there.
In 1907 there was a parish mission in Pabianice, conducted by Fr. Peregrine Haczela.
Raymond's faith was not strong, but despite his doubts he received the Franciscan habit from Father Haczela, taking the name Maximilian,
and he entered the novitiate in Lwow.
On November 1, 1914, Friar Maximilian professed solemn vows of poverty, chastity and obedience at the seminary of the Order in Rome.
As it was written in the rules of the Order established by St Francis:
"The brothers shall appropriate nothing to themselves, neither a house nor place nor anything. And as pilgrims and strangers in this world...let them go confidently in quest of alms."
In1917, he suffered a haemorrhage, and was found to be suffering from tuberculosis. He had been playing ball at the time of his attack.
He realised he might not be long on earth, so he redoubled his efforts to do what he could in the time left for him.
He founded a Christian magazine, which he and two fellow-priests printed on a hand press.
The initial print was five thousand, rising to forty-five thousand. He was still undergoing treatment in a sanatorium.
He went to Nagasaki in 1930,
where he founded a Japanese edition of the magazine,
with a print run of ten thousand.
He also planned to launch a Chinese edition in Shanghai,
and one in India also.
Nine months before the Nazi invasion, he returned to Poland.
On September 19, he was arrested with thirty-five brothers,
but set free in December.
He turned his monastery into a refuge for three thousand Poles and fifteen-hundred Jews.
On February 17, 1941, he was arrested by the Gestapo
and confined in Warsaw's Pawiak Prison.
After being tortured for over two months,
on May 28 he was transported to Oswiecim
and tattooed with his number, 16670.
On August 15 his body was burned in the crematorium and his ashes dispersed to the wind.
But his memory lives today.
What purpose is served by martyrdom?
If you sacrifice your life for me
is not death still waiting to claim me nevertheless?
If you choose to live in poverty
does that make me any the richer?
If you choose to go hungry
does your choice ease the hunger of any of the world's starving?
Should we not rather
remove the causes of poverty, of starvation, of untimely death, of the need for martyrs?
My country has been plagued for years by revolutionaries of the left and the right.
Father Kolbe once wrote:
The real conflict is inner conflict.
Beyond armies of occupation and the catacombs of concentration camps, there are two irreconcilable enemies in the depth of every soul: good and evil, sin and love.
And what use are victories on the battle-field if we ourselves are defeated in our innermost personal selves?
Oscar Romero, martyred archbishop of San Salvador, said:
It is not a question of what you believe.
Without God, there is no true liberation.
Granted, one may achieve temporary liberations.
But definitive, lasting liberations – only people of faith are going to realise them.
What purpose is served by martyrdom?
If you sacrifice your life for me
is not death still waiting to claim me nevertheless?
If you choose to live in poverty
does that make me any the richer?
If you choose to go hungry
does your choice ease the hunger of any of the world's starving?
Should we not rather
remove the causes of poverty, of starvation, of untimely death, of the need for martyrs?
July 2, 2004,
with thanks to the Rev. Bob Hill, who brought this story to my attention
