Saint Kolbe Memorial Museum, at Hongouchi Church, in Nagasaki
Father Maximilian Kolbe was born in Poland in 1894 and was a priest of the Conventual
Order of St. Francis.
He had been active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary.
He came to Japan in 1930 and began educating seminarians and publishing a monthly
magazine ” the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary.”
After that, the number of Japanese people who understood God’s teachings increased,
and Hongouchi Church was established in 1931.
After six years in Japan, he returned to Poland for health reasons.
And then, he volunteered to die in place of a man named Franciszek Gajowniczek in the
German death camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland.
Saint Kolbe Memorial Museum was built to commemorate his canonization in 1986.