ST. MAXIMILIAN KOLBE: LOVE WITHOUT LIMITS

Here’s how this week’s arts and culture piece begins:

On a recent trip to the Chicago area, I was able to visit the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe in Libertyville, Illinois. The shrine comprises the Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, a Rosary Garden, and a Conventual Franciscan Friary.

Kolbe (1894-1941) is the Polish priest who offered to take the place of a fellow prisoner condemned to die in the starvation bunker at Auschwitz.

The chapel, open to the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, is dedicated to Perpetual Adoration, and has been since 1928 (the original temporary chapel moved to the current site in 1932).

Marytown, as the site is called, serves a broad apostolate—locally, nationally, and internationally—through Eucharistic Adoration, a prison ministry, daily Masses, weekday Confessions, and a retreat program.

READ THE WHOLE PIECE HERE.