A Quote from St. Maximilian Kolbe

The Papal Artifacts’ Collection is primarily dedicated to artifacts connected to the papacy. Individual popes, their biographies and multiple items belonging to them, including first and second class relics, make up the majority of this Collection. But that isn’t all it is.

Father Kunst has a deep devotion to the saints as can be readily seen in viewing the Saints & Blesseds section of this site. We invite you to visit Papal History/Saints & Blesseds to view the many canonized and beatified men and women who make up this section of the Collection.

St. Maximilian Kolbe is one of them.

St. Maximilian Kolbe

“If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion.”

About the First Class Relic of St. Maximilian Kolbe:

How does one come to have a first class relic of a saint who died a martyr’s death in Auschwitz? Of all the relics in Father Kunst’s Collection, perhaps this one is the most incredible.

This is a first-class relic, in the form of hairs from his head and beard, preserved without his knowledge by two friars at Niepolkalanow who served as barbers in his friary between 1930 and 1941. Since his beatification in 1971, these relics have been distributed around the world for public veneration.

Second-class relics, such as his personal effects, clothing and liturgical vestments, are preserved in his monastery cell and in a chapel at Niepokalanow and may be viewed by the faithful who visit

Father Richard Kunst:

The document, included here, authenticates the 1st class relic of hairs from St. Maximilian Kolbe’s beard. The barber, who shaved his beard, was supposed to burn the hair, but the fire went out, and as a result the barber kept these hairs. They are now a 1st class relic of a martyred saint.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.