Patronage
2 saints are venerated as patrons of Prisoners, led by Maximilian Kolbe (feast day August 14).
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'.
1581 — 1660 · Feast day: September 27
Vincent de Paul, born to a Gascon peasant family in 1581, was ordained a priest in 1600. His encounter with a dying peasant who lacked the sacraments, and later his work as chaplain to galley slaves, turned his ambition for a comfortable benefice into a lifelong commitment to the destitute. He founded the Vincentians (1625) and co-founded the Daughters of Charity (1633) with Louise de Marillac.