Maxmillian Kolbe (Jan 8, 1894 - August 14, 1941) was born Rajmund Kolbe and became a Polish Franciscan Friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger (a man with a wife and children) in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland. He was canonized a Saint on Oct 10, 1982 by Pope John Paul II who declared Kolbe a martyr of charity.
Kole is the patron saint of drug addicts, political prisioners, families, journalists, prisoners, and the pro-life movement.
John Paul II declared him the "Patron Saint of our Difficult Century."
