St. Maximilian Kolbe in Japan
The untold story of how St. Maximilian Kolbe, the martyr to charity, ushered in a Catholic literary revival in Japan.
Friday, August 13, the eve of the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe (and his transitus to heaven) join us via Zoom at 5:30 pm PACIFIC/8:30 pm EASTERN.
Register today to receive a Zoom link the day of the event.
Who is St. Maximilian Kolbe? A saint and a hero for our time and all time: the Apostle of Consecration to Mary. Fr. Kolbe offered himself up for death in Auschwitz to save the life of a family man the Nazis were going to kill to punish the camp for the escape of a prisoner.
As the patron saint of drug addicts (he was murdered by lethal injection of carbolic acid), St. Maximilian Kolbe is one of Benedict XVI Institute's Patron Saints of the Homeless.
In 1982, Pope John Paul II canonized Kolbe and declared him a martyr of charity. St. Pope John Paul II declared him "The Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century". His feast day is 14 August, the day of his death.
When he was 12, Maximilian Kolbe received a vision of the Blessed Mother:
"That night I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both."
But few in the West know the story of St. Maximilian Kolbe's impact on Catholics in Japan. By 1931 he had founded a Franciscan monastery, Mugenzai no Sono, on the outskirts of Nagasaki, which survived the atomic bomb intact and still survives.
Few know that one of the greatest living novelists in Japan is a Catholic convert. Ayako Sono's 1973 novel Miracles tells the story of a young Catholic woman who becomes fascinated by Fr. Kolbe's sacrifice and travels to Poland and Austria to explore the miracles attributed to him. A whole generation of major Japanese novelists was fascinated by his witness.
(A review of the novel may be read here: https://japan-forward.com/book-review-beyond-the-i-novel-ayako-sonos-miracles/).
Prof. Kevin Doak, an expert in Japanese literature and culture who translated Miracles and teaches at Georgetown University, will join Joshua Hren, publisher of Wiseblood Books which is bringing Sono's novel Miracles back into print for English readers this August, will team up to discuss the fascinating untold story of a great saint's influence in the country he loved and served: Japan.
Prof. Kevin Doak is also the author of the forthcoming essay for CatholicArtsToday.com "St. Maximilian Kolbe in Japan."
Join us! Register now to receive a Zoom link the day of the event.
The untold story of how St. Maximilian Kolbe, the martyr to charity, ushered in a Catholic literary revival in Japan.
Friday, August 13, the eve of the Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe (and his transitus to heaven) join us via Zoom at 5:30 pm PACIFIC/8:30 pm EASTERN.
Register today to receive a Zoom link the day of the event.
Who is St. Maximilian Kolbe? A saint and a hero for our time and all time: the Apostle of Consecration to Mary. Fr. Kolbe offered himself up for death in Auschwitz to save the life of a family man the Nazis were going to kill to punish the camp for the escape of a prisoner.
As the patron saint of drug addicts (he was murdered by lethal injection of carbolic acid), St. Maximilian Kolbe is one of Benedict XVI Institute's Patron Saints of the Homeless.
In 1982, Pope John Paul II canonized Kolbe and declared him a martyr of charity. St. Pope John Paul II declared him "The Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century". His feast day is 14 August, the day of his death.
When he was 12, Maximilian Kolbe received a vision of the Blessed Mother:
"That night I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both."
But few in the West know the story of St. Maximilian Kolbe's impact on Catholics in Japan. By 1931 he had founded a Franciscan monastery, Mugenzai no Sono, on the outskirts of Nagasaki, which survived the atomic bomb intact and still survives.
Few know that one of the greatest living novelists in Japan is a Catholic convert. Ayako Sono's 1973 novel Miracles tells the story of a young Catholic woman who becomes fascinated by Fr. Kolbe's sacrifice and travels to Poland and Austria to explore the miracles attributed to him. A whole generation of major Japanese novelists was fascinated by his witness.
(A review of the novel may be read here: https://japan-forward.com/book-review-beyond-the-i-novel-ayako-sonos-miracles/).
Prof. Kevin Doak, an expert in Japanese literature and culture who translated Miracles and teaches at Georgetown University, will join Joshua Hren, publisher of Wiseblood Books which is bringing Sono's novel Miracles back into print for English readers this August, will team up to discuss the fascinating untold story of a great saint's influence in the country he loved and served: Japan.
Prof. Kevin Doak is also the author of the forthcoming essay for CatholicArtsToday.com "St. Maximilian Kolbe in Japan."
Join us! Register now to receive a Zoom link the day of the event.