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Friday, August 14, 2009

~ So....how was Lourdes? ~


by Tina~in_ut

Have you ever gone somewhere on vacation to see something specific and were pleasantly surprised to find something else? My sister just got back from France where she spent a month learning French. Each weekend she planned a trip to somewhere she'd never been: Amsterdam, Lisieux, Normandy, and Lourdes.


For those of you who don't know, many people make pilgrimages to Lourdes because of the healing waters. Mary is said to have appeared to St. Bernadette there. Bernadette was asked to dig in the mud, and days later, a spring began to flow from that spot. Many very ill people have been cured of their ailments after bathing in the springs. Although I found my sister's visit there interesting, it was her story of Maximilian Kolbe that fascinated me the most.

While waiting in line to see the house that Bernadette lived in as a child, the Polish seminarian who was showing my sister's group around, asked if they wanted to see the Maximilian Kolbe Center (the Franciscan monastery) which was next door. He was very excited to find a fellow seminarian who spoke English and could tell the story of Kolbe.

Maximilian Kolbe was born on January 8, 1894 in what is now Poland, to a father of German decent and a Polish mother. He claims to have had a vision of Mary as a child and was subsequently influenced by her the rest of his life. In 1918, he became a Franciscan priest. He was sent to Warsaw where he founded and supervised a monastery, a seminary, a radio station, and several other organizations and publications. Between 1930 and 1936, he went on several missions to Japan, founding a monastery in Nagasaki. He was advised to build his monastery on the side of the mountain best suited to be in tune with nature, but went against that advise and built it on the other side. Because of this, his monastery was saved when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The force of the blast from the bomb hit the other side of the mountain, saving the monastery and his fellow priests.

In 1936, Fr. Kolbe was recalled back to Poland. By 1939, in the midst of WWII, he began to organize a shelter for 3,000 Polish refugees, among whom were 2,000 Jews. The Friars housed, clothed, and fed them all. Fr. Kolbe also spoke out against the Nazi's at his radio station and wrote about them in his review, The Knight of the Immaculate. On February 17, 1941, he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Pawaik prison in Warsaw. On May 28th, he was transferred to Auschwitz as prisoner #16670. In July of that same year, during the evening roll-call, it was found that three men had escaped, one of which was from Fr. Kolbe's barracks. As was the practice, 10 men were chosen to be starved to death in the Bunker (the underground starvation cell), in order to deter further escape attempts. One of those men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, "Oh, my poor wife, my poor children. I shall never see them again." It was then that Fr. Kolbe volunteered to take his place. From several eyewitness accounts, it is said that Fr. Kolbe led the men in prayer, saying the rosary and singing songs. He was outwardly calm and, after two weeks, he was the only one of the ten still alive. Needing the cell in order to torture others, it was decided that Fr. Kolbe would be given an injection of carbolic acid. He was murdered on August 14, 1941 at the age of 47. His remains were cremated the next day on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.

Fr. Kolbe was beatified (the first step towards sainthood in the Catholic Church) in 1971. On October 10, 1982, in the presence of Franciszek Gajowniczek, he was canonized a saint by the Polish Pope, John Paul II. His feast day is August 14th and he is the patron saint of drug addicts, prisoners, journalists, and the pro-life movement. Pope John Paul II declared him "The Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century". Franciszek Gajowniczek lived 53 years after Fr Kolbe saved his life. His wife, Helena, survived the war, but his sons were killed in Russia in 1945, before his release.

My sister loves to tell about her travels and I love listening. I thought I knew what I was going to hear when I asked, "So....how was Lourdes?"

105 comments:

  1. Being number 1 brought to you by insomnia!

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  2. Morning Glories!

    Tina I always find it interesting when we learn about history when we wander to other destinations in our travels. Great story about Maximilian Kolbe. He obviously was a great man who followed what he believed and in the process saved lives while sparing no thought to his own.

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  3. Good morning, LynnD and congrats on 1-3!

    Tina, interesting bit of history there. A touching story as well. Thanks for that!

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  4. Good Morning!

    TINA: My mom loved to read about the lives of the Saints. There are numerous books around the house about them. Her favorite was St. Bernadette. She just loved her.

    Fr. Kolbe's life is one of true selflessness. I had never heard his story..but it is in some ways very sad, and in other ways so very heroic and inspiring. Thank you so much for introducing us to this great man.

    LYNND: Congrats on 1..!!! :)

    I'm going back to bed...I hope everyone has a wonderful day full of smiles. Here, I'll start by leaving these for everybody! :D :D :D

    G'night!

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  5. Good Morning BONACCI..thanks for the help into the pool yesterday afternoon..the water was very refreshing!! :D

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  6. Good Morning All - Be back in a few minutes.

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  7. Good Morning Lynn - Congrats on being first. For a change I slept really well last night. The cool weather helps.

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  8. Good Morning Bonacci and Zona-My-Baby. I guess most owls slept in today.

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  9. Tina - Thank you for the interesting story this morning. I very much enjoyed reading it.

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  10. I have the locksmith coming this morning as I can't open my back door easily. Zona, the WD40 worked but I think it needs a whole new lock. Thanks for the help however.

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  11. It rained hard last night and it smells so sweet outside.

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  12. Good Morning Everyone!!

    Lynn, Congrat's on 1st. Sorry you're having trouble sleeping.

    Tina, interesting blog.. Enjoy learning from you all...if only I could retain the information you all give, just think how smart I would be! ;o)

    Tink, hope you are feeling better today.

    Waving at Zona (no more walking in that humidity/heat), Bonacci (hope you feel better too) and everyone that flies in later......

    Gotta get busy around here....
    Have a great day!!!!

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  13. I will be back later. Have a great day owls.

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  14. HI Birdee - You flew in while I was marching. I am still aching but trying hard to ignore the pain. Thanks for asking.

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  15. Good morning!

    A quick fly-by, I'm on my way to work.

    Tina, interesting and enjoyable blog. I enjoyed learning this morning...

    Lynn, congrats on 1st!

    Hope everyone has a great day!

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  16. Birdee, thanks! I think I'm fine. Am I not fine? Is there something I don't know about? What's wrong with me?

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  17. Tina, that was a fascinating story, about a very impressive person I'd never heard of before! Thanks for writing about it!

    As 'weenie noted in her blog a couple of weeks ago, the Nazis were equal-opportunity brutalizers.

    P.S. What miracles were attributed to Mr Kolbe to qualify him for sainthood?

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  18. LynnD Ah, the bright side of insomnia! Congrats!

    Tina What an interesting story about an exceptional human being and very brave individual. Thank you. Too many people and organizations did not take a public stance against the Nazis, even from the safety of being in a different country. I guess we didn't learn enough, though, as similar atrocities continue in the world today.

    Waving at Bonachichi, Zona, Tinka, Birdee, and Bear.

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  19. Bear Since the prisoners were basically starved to death very slowly anyway from lack of food, I would imagine he was in very poor condition and the fact that he was still alive after 2 weeks of no food at all may be considered a miracle. I'm just guessing on this.

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  20. I am asking this strictly out of ignorance... Does a person have to have performed 2 miracles after their death to be considered a saint?

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  21. Tina: I just read the article on Fr. Kolbe (now Saint Maximilian) in Wikipedia. The article reinforced my impression from your blog, that he was a truly remarkable person.

    This is what the article said about the miracles:

    "St. Maximilian's beatification miracle was the July 1948 cure of intestinal tuberculosis in Angela Testoni, and in August 1950, the cure of calcification of the arteries/sclerosis of Francis Ranier was attributed to the intercession of St. Maximilian."

    That's, um... creative! :)

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  22. Whoops, that shouldn't have been addressed to Tina... should have been Linda!

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  23. Morning Hooters~

    ok so I gotta tell ya the show I went to last night... Slava's Snowshow is ouystanding. It was like Cirque de Soleil meets Dr. Seuss on crack!!!! I highly recommend that if it comes to any of the towns you live near to go see it. I am posting a link of what happens at the end of the show. It was great to see 40,50,60 + peeps act like children and have confetti fights or try to knock the balls around... you will see what I mean.

    Tina: Thanks for another lesson~

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPfP62sn2V0

    ok back to work

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  24. that would be outstanding not ouystanding...

    and 40, 50, 60 yr olds.....

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  25. Slava's Snow Show!! Here I'd been reading it as Slava's Snow Shoe and wondering what the HECK it could be about. Siberia, I was thinking.

    Glad you enjoyed yourself, Kgrl... And I'm happy that you're glad you went!

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  26. I think I did in fact write Snowshoe yesterday. I really did get A's in English when I was in school~

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  27. Don't be too hard on yourself, Kgrl; I often misread things and still assume that this was one of those times. Don't think you're going to be able to convince anyone here you're anything but intelligent.

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  28. Bonachichi Performing miracles after being dead would be....I don't know.....tricky? jmho

    Bear Thanks for the clarification. Regardless of sainthood status, I think we can all agree that the man was a hero.

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  29. Last night I was the guest at a dinner attended by about 60-70 travel agents, hosted by a group to promote tourism to Africa. At the dinner was a presentation by a husband and wife who run the Wild Cat Education and Conservation Foundation. They brought with them a Caracal, King Cheetah, Serval, and Geoffrey's Cat. The animals are so beautiful and the 45-60 minute talk about them was extremely interesting. It was really neat to learn about them and observe them up close in a dining room.

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  30. It is 6:48 on the East Coast....

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  31. This marching alone shit has gotta stop~

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  32. How do you get a one armed blond out of the tree?

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  33. yes i know its amazing that the one armed blond could get up the tree, but how do you get her down?

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  34. pencil that in would ya Shirley?

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  35. Congrats on 1st Lynn D!

    Tina your blog was very interesting. I had never heard of this man before today.

    Good evening to Lynn D, Bonachichi, Zona, Tinka, Birdee, EBJ, Whabbear, Just Lin and K-girl.

    K-girl if I'm ever here when you're marching I'll give you a run for your money. OK?

    I have had a very long and tiring day at mum's and I have to be there at 8 tomorrow morning so I think I'll be heading to bed shortly. After being away all week my sister came home in a real pissy mood. She better be over it by tomorrow or we might have some words. Night everyone!

    Happy Early Birthday VIG!!! Hope you have a great day tomorrow!!!

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  36. Happy Friday Owls.

    Tina, Very interesting blog today. Kolb is certainly worthy of sainthood. Thanks for sharing his life's journey with us.

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  37. Lynn, congrats on #1 again. Sorry you are having the insomnia blues.

    Happy birthday to VIG and belated happy birthday to all those I missed while I was in Seattle.

    Sharon and I went to see Harry Potter today and I dozed off in the theater. I wasn't impressed with the movie (apparently). We should have gone to see Julia & Julie.

    Carol, Bear, MEK, Mary, EBJ, Zona, LynnD, Bon'O, Just_Lin, Lani, Tina, Dianne, K-grl, Caryn, Tinka, Mo, Jodi & Goldie, You all have MS email from me. I sent it yesterday, but for some reason it didn't work. I hope this one works.

    Waving to all the Owls that have landed and those that land later.

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  38. Good evening feathered friends~!

    I had a lonnnnnnng day today, but it was 2 hours of OT so all is ok!

    TINA...thanks for the educational blog today. I had never heard of Fr. Kolbe, but he certainly is a heroic man and deserving of Saint hood.

    KGIRL...waving at ya...glad I have 2 arms, not blonde nor up a tree!!

    WHABBY...absolutely about Hitler being an equal opportunity fucker!

    LYNN...hoping your insomnia takes a hike!

    SHIRLEY...If you would feel better to have words with your sis, then I say LET 'EM RIP!!

    Need to get somethings accomplished. Will bbl and finish commenting

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  39. Well what a wonderful Friday night! I have a brand-spankin' new bottle of DiSaronno, some Tropicana O.J. and my trusty icemaker. Guess what I'm gonna do??

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  40. CHI CHI...ohhh I know, I know!! You're gonna pour yourself, me and KGIRL a lovely Amaretto and OJ...right???? LOL!!

    My computer has a new trick...I can't even send MySpace messages now! WTF?

    VIG...I tried sending you a birthday comment...only the HAPP came out ;( HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

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  41. Mo, you got it!! I'm pourin' for anyone who wants some! Keep in mind that this is Kgrl's drink and she instructed me to use fresh OJ. Unfortunately, I am in L.A., so everything from boobs to OJ is fake.

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  42. actually Bonacchi, Mo is partial to that libation as well.

    Ill take a double please with plenty of ice.

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  43. I brought a bottle of DiSaronno back from Italy...maybe it is finally time to crack it open!!

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  44. Okay, Kgrl & Mo... The non-drinker is goin' for it. Let me know what I do when I wake up, would you?

    Down the hatch....

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  45. SACBARB...I wish I could. Maybe the next one.

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  46. Ill take fake OJ over fake boobs anytime thank you~

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  47. Well, it's not terrible... I get the creamsicle part. It has that vermouthy alcohol taste but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

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  48. saggin

    draggin

    either way......

    ill take
    the real ones
    anyday~

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  49. Kgrl, I've got real boobs and fake OJ, so your drink should be fine :D

    Mo, when I go to Italy, everyone drinks grappa. Have you had it?

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  50. CHI CHI...nope, never had grappa. I shall put that on my bucket list should I ever be blessed enough to return to Italy.

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  51. Oh I wasn't referring to my mixoligist, just a general statement.

    Grappa is good~

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  52. Mo, don't put grappa on your bucket list. It's awful!

    Kgrl, I don't know what a mixologist is, but if you think TMI could offend my delicate sensibilities, no worries.

    This little DiSaronno party might be shorter than expected. Mr. B and his idiots are drinking it.

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  53. oh I don't think I could offend you....and I wasn't worried about it.

    his idiots ey? The bottle is not that big. soon they will be talking with their hands and wanting you to fix them pasta.

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  54. Kgrl; I wouldn't drink more than one anyway.... The idiots is what I call them when they get together and alcohol is involved. It started as beer, BBQ and baseball. It's anyone's guess how it will end.

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  55. Mo~ you crack me up everytime you call Bonachichi ChiChi!! You know you are calling her Boob!!!! :)~

    Bonachichi~ R U drunk yet? ...btw...the DeeDee has landed....straight into her bed~

    Thank you to everyone for your kind comments....I don't want to sound preachy.....I just really liked Kolbe's story!

    My kids were in the procession tonight and then we went to Vespers (a kind of prayer service and everything is sung) at the Cathedral...and quite a few Bishops, Arch Bishops, and a Cardinal were there! My favorite Arch Bishop Neiderhauer was there and gave the sermon....dang I love that man~ On our way home, we were discussing being Catholic and my hubby started telling the kids about St. Maximilian Kolbe.....I thought he had read my blog...but he was at mass this morning and today is Kolbe's feast day so he was mentioned. lol...and here I thought my hubby finally joined our ranks and started reading! duh~

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  56. We are leaving early tomorrow morning for the farm so I thought I would get in a last march. Anyone here?

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  57. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  58. 99 posted twice for some reason. This is 102

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  59. lol...Tinka~ hmmmmm...does a deleted 100 count? lol~ have fun at the farm~ :)~

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  60. Have a great weekend everyone. I will see you Monday. Great blog Tina.

    Happy Birthday VIG. Love, Audrey

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  61. Sorry I haven't commented on other's comments. I will as soon as my fingers are normal again.

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  62. Tina, I'm glad to hear DeeDee's home safe and sound. I drank almost all of the DiSaronno drink. I am tired. Is that drunk?

    The guys with my husband are yelling at the TV people. Especially Manny-What's-His-Name from the Dodgers. I don't think they like him. I think they are worse off than me.

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  63. Tina - I guess that is up to the judge. LOL.

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  64. Tink, I hope your arthritis gets better. I have a pinky that gets stuck sometimes but that's because it got broken. So it doesn't hurt. It just doesn't do what I tell it to sometimes.

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  65. I know a guy who lost his thumb and he doesn't miss it at all.

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  66. lol....hubby and the kids were just on the news......the kids are embarrassed! lq~

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  67. oh yeah~ to play OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER again~ :D

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  68. No Tina. You save it to use for blackmailing later.

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  69. Good evening everyone. I finally got caught up on today's comments!

    Tina I loved the history on Fr. Kolbe
    I will have to do some reading on his life. You have "stimulated" me like Whabby did lol!

    Whabby, I am waiting for your upcoming blogs!

    Tinka, enjoy your trip to the farm.

    Why dos that make me think of a certain song? Oh yea, "took a trip and never left the farm" lol! I am sure you won't be on THAT kind of trip Tinka :)

    I just finished unpacking one suitcase and now packing another for my trip on Sunday morning (very early) with my Niece Jaimie. We are taking a plane to Portland Oregon then a train to Vancouver where we will be staying for a few days, then back to Portland for a day to hit some wineries and then back home on the 23rd. I will be taking my laptop so hopefully I will be in touch. As you can imagine, I will be busy tomorrow!

    Have a great week end everyone!!

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY Vig!!!!

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  70. Oh my! Whabby is stimulating Mary. I think I better go to bed now. LOL

    Sweet dreams, HOoters!

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  71. TINA - Loved your blog. Being Lutheran, I'm really not up on the saint thing. Beautiful story!!

    VIG - HAPPY 50TH!!!

    I hope everyone has a great Saturday!!!

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