Forget Not Love: The Passion of Maximilian Kolbe

Rating:
Summary: "Forget Not Love" is Special
Review: "Forget Not Love" is the story of St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish Franciscan who offered to die in the place of a married man at Auschwitz, yet this book is about so much more. It creates a portrait of Kolbe as a real human being, it tells of one man's zeal for his faith and country, and it is about what love really is. This book is one of the best I have read on St. Maximilian. Frossard's beautiful writing is an added plus. I HIGHLY reccomend this book to all!

Rating:
Summary: Simply excellent
Review: Maximilian Kolbe was one of the 20th century's greatest witnesses to truth and what it means to be fully human, an extraordinarily courageous man, and yet so humble that few will have heard of him. This book is superb in conveying his greatness, and what it means to say that someone is a great saint. Suffering from chronic tuberculosis and with less than one full lung's capacity, he went as a missionary to Japan where he published his first newspaper within a month, in Japanese. During the war, his monastery gave shelter to 1,500 Jews. When the Gestapo were taking him and other Franciscan brothers to Aushwitz, he managed to stay cheerful saying that for once, their mission was paid for by someone else. What mission? Survivors of all beliefs remember his constant smile, his kindness in the dark of the night (he would go to the side of the dying to comfort them). In the end, he volunteered to die of starvation in the place of a young father so he might live to see his family again. When it comes to witnessing Christ, Kolbe was simply awesome. Inspiring yet sober. In one word, moving.