"Mary presented me with two crowns"

Father Maximilian Kolbe, born in Poland into a modest and deeply religious family, was a rather unruly child, until one day he heard his mother exclaim in exasperation: "My poor child, what will become of you?" 

This question upset him. A life-changing event followed, which he later shared with his mother: "I prayed a lot to the Blessed Virgin to tell me what would become of me. Then she appeared to me holding two crowns, one white and one red. She looked at me with love and offered them to me. The white one meant that I would always be pure, and the red one that I would be a martyr. I accepted them both!"

On February 17, 1941, the Gestapo seized Father Maximilien Kolbe and four other brothers, taking them first to Pawiak prison in Warsaw, Poland. Because he was a religious priest, Father Kolbe was severely beaten. He wrote to his brothers in religion who had remained in Niepokalanow (1): 

"The Immaculate Mother, who is very loving, has always surrounded us with tenderness and will always watch over us. Let us be led by her, more and more perfectly wherever she wishes and in whichever way she pleases, so that, fulfilling our duties to the end, we may, through love, save all souls." A few days later, Father Kolbe was transferred to the Auschwitz camp.

Adapted from Marian Encyclopedia

(1) Niepokalanów, known as the "City of the Immaculate Mother of God", is a Polish Catholic monastery founded in 1927 by Saint Maximilian Kolbe. It is located in Teresin, west of Warsaw.