Maximilian Kolbe
1894 — 1941 · Feast day: August 14
A Franciscan friar who used modern media to spread the Gospel, founding a massive monastery and publishing house in Poland. Arrested by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz, he volunteered to die in place of a stranger, Franciszek Gajowniczek, who had a family. Thrown into a starvation bunker, he led the other prisoners in hymns and prayer, transforming a hellish cell into a chapel. He is known as the 'Martyr of Charity'.