Today at Mass I remembered St Maximillian Kolbe. There is a window dedicated to him here at All Saints'. Kolbe's story was pivotal in my call to the priesthood, and I was able to visit Auschwitz, his place of martyrdom, in 2020. It was covid time, and the restrictions on travel were forever being changed in the UK, but when a window appeared, my wife and I travelled to Krakow, where we met a friend and drove the hour or so through the beautiful countryside to the site of the most horrific genocide humanity has ever witnessed.
Auschwitz was very quiet that day due to the range of restrictions in place on travel around the world, and the three of us had a study-tour guide to ourselves. The actual site of Kolbe's death was closed at the time for repairs, but when she found I was a priest, and had come to make a pilgrimage to the site, she took me down into the dark basement and allowed me to spend time in prayer at the death cell. It was a difficult, but beautiful experience. When people ask me about sainthood, I often refer to him, his life and death and i ask them if they could ever contemplate making the split-second decision he did, which saved a life. That life survived the horrors of Auschwitz and flourished, gracing the world with generations to come.
Saints matter to me and to many other Anglicans. Often the role they play in the life of the church is mis-understood. The saints who have gone before us have shaped the world we live in, and we, at the very least, should give thanks for them in our daily prayers.
At All Saints’ we remember individual saints at Mass on the day their anniversary occurs (there are a few exceptions for very "big" saints - if their day falls on a weekday we may transfer it to a Sunday.) Some of us believe that our relationship with the Saints in heaven is real, that they pray for us as we pray for them. Some of us believe that we can petition saints to pray on our behalf.
The beauty of this community is that people are welcome here, regardless of what they believe; in recent years this community has come to understand that we don't all believe the same thing about lots of religious and theological issues. But people come with an open heart, seeking to find Jesus in word and Sacrament, just as St Maximillian Kolbe did. Thanks be to God for his life, ministry and sacrifice. May he rest in peace.
