Patron saints
Who Is the Patron Saint of Prisoners?
Saint Maximilian Kolbe · Feast day August 14
The patron saint of prisoners is Saint Maximilian Kolbe, whose feast day is August 14.
Who was Saint Maximilian Kolbe?
Saint Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish friar imprisoned at Auschwitz who stepped forward to take the place of a stranger condemned to die by starvation, giving his own life so a father could live. He died in 1941, and the man he saved survived the war.
Why the patron of prisoners?
For that supreme act of love in a place of death, he is honored as a patron of prisoners and of families.
In the Word
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.John 15:13 (KJV)
A note for all traditions: patron saints are honored in the Catholic and Orthodox churches as examples of faith and as friends who pray with us, never worshiped, for worship belongs to God alone. Many Protestant Christians honor the saints as examples without asking their intercession. Across all traditions, there is one Lord and one mediator between God and us, the man Christ Jesus, and every one of us, not only the saints, is called to holiness and to him.
All the saints point to Jesus, and so are you called
Saint Maximilian Kolbe was not the point; Christ was. Every saint is a window, and the light is Jesus, who is Lord of all. You are called to the same holiness and the same love. Pray, read the Word, and gather with the family of God on The Living Bread. Free, with no ads, for all people.
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