His Polish name is Maksymilian Maria Kolbe. He was born on January 8, 1894. Kolbe volunteered to die on August 14, 1941, in place of a stranger in the German death camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II. Although he was a Conventual Franciscan friar, he is most often pictured in his prison garb from Auschwitz as a reminder of his martyrdom of kindness. We thought it would be nice to incorporate this beautiful photograph of him in his religious habit as a reminder of the sort of life he lived that led up to that heroic moment in the gulag. That "stranger" Maximillian gave his life for was Franciszek Gajowniczek, a Polish army sergeant. When Kolbe was beatified, Gajowniczek was present as a guest of Pope Paul VI. And when Kolbe was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1982, Gajowniczek was there again. In great part thanks to Maximilian’s sacrificial gift, Franciszek Gajowniczek lived to be 93 years old, passing away on March 13, 1995.

Our beautiful greeting cards feature the same high quality images as our fine art reproductions and are printed on exquisitely textured super-heavy watercolor paper.

The back of each card has a short descriptive history of the image on the front and inside there is plenty of blank space for any hand-written correspondence or greeting! The quality of these cards will show that you really found something special for someone.

Cards measure approximately 5"x7" and include an envelope. You will like these cards so much that you will want one just to have for yourself so order extra!