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.
The martyred St. Maximilian Kolbe is one of them.
(In addition to this extremely rare signature, the Collection also has a First Class relic of the saint, featured below.)
A Letter of Dismissal Signed by St. Maximilian Kolbe
Considered to be one of the Rarer Autographs of the 20th Century
The artifact is a letter signed by Father Maximilian Kolbe. It concerns the dismissal of an employee and was signed on March 14, 1939.
The letter includes a redaction seal and is considered to be one of the rarer signatures in the 20th century.
“It is among the rarer autographs of 20th century personages, primarily due to the fact that Kolbe did not gain notoriety till decades after his death.” —Fr. Richard Kunst
The Papal Artifacts’ Collection is fortunate to have obtained, not only his First Class relic, but also, now, his signature.
Translation of the Letter
Heading:
Center: The Little Diary, Publication of the Knights of the Immaculata
Left upper corner: Headquarter: Niepokalanów
Right upper corner: addresses of local branches
Niepokalanow, March 14, 1939
Honorable Editor
Boleslaw Swiderski
Since, in your letter dated February 27th 1939, delivered to us on March 1st of the current year, you have offended your employer, according to the par. 32 of regulations of employment contract for administrative (white collar) workers, we dismiss (fire) you from work today (with immediate effect).
Signed
Fr. Maximilian Kolbe (original: O. Maksymilian Kolbe)
The Little Diary’s editor in chief
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- Saint Maximilian Kolbe: 1st Class Relic
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- St. Maximilian Kolbe Document Authenticating the 1st Class Relic of Hair
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- Saint Maximilian Kolbe
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.
St. Maximilian Kolbe
The Franciscan friar, Maximilian Mary Kolbe, died in the Auschwitz concentration camp on August 14, 1941. Two weeks earlier, a prisoner had gone missing. The commandant, Karl Fristsch, announced the penalty to the entire camp: ten men would die in the starvation bunker. As his name was called, Franciszek Gajowniczek cried out, “My wife, my children!” Father Maximilian stepped forward and offered to take his place. He and the other nine men were tossed naked into a concrete hole in Building 13.
Francixzek Gajowniczek is pictured below at the canonization of Maximilian Kolbe. The saint saved his life and he was privileged to be a part of the canonization
The camp prisoners waited to hear the howls of anguish coming from the bunker. Instead, they heard feeble voices raised in prayer and hymns of praise. Maximilian was encouraging the men. A Pole assigned to serve at the bunker later told how at each inspection the priest was always in the middle of them, standing or kneeling in prayer. After two weeks, only Maximilian remained alive. When the SS men entered the cell, he offered his arm for their lethal injection.
One prisoner later said his death was “a shock filled with hope, bringing new life and strength…It was like a powerful shaft of light in the darkness of the camp.” Maximilian is a patron of families, for he gave his life for the father of a family. He is a patron of prisoners, for he gave hope to the condemned. —Lisa Lickona, The Magnificat Year of Mercy Companion, page 320 Maximillian Kolbe died August 14, 1941.
