Saint Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Conventual Franciscan Friar who was sent to Auschwitz for hiding Jews during the Second World War. When the Nazi guards selected 10 people to be starved to death in punishment, Kolbe volunteered to die in place of a stranger. He was later canonised as a martyr.

His name wasn't always Maximilian. He was a son to a poor weaver on July 1 1894 at Zdunska Wola in Poland, and was given the baptismal name of Raymond. His parents were devout Christians with a particular devotion to Mary. In his infancy Kolbe seems to have been normally mischievous but we are told that one day, after his mother had scolded him for some mischief or other, her words took effect and brought about a radical change in the child's