Parish Ministry

Inspired by the example of St. Maximillian Kolbe the apostle of evangelisation, our friars all over the world have been exploring the immense powers of mass media for preaching the Gospel of Christ more effectively. In England, the printing and world wide circulation of the Crusader of MI is our outstanding apostolate in this area.

Each month the Crusader Magazine is distributed to more than fifty countries of the world, including several African countries; from Ethiopia to Ghana , to Nigeria, Zambia and South Africa. From as far away as New Zealand to as close to home as Ireland. To the United States and Canada; to Brazil, Jordan and Japan, India and Sri Lanka.

Annually we sent 29,784 single copies of the magazine. The first Saturday of each month we distribute 18,000 copies annually: making a grand total of 283,844 copies of the magazine every year.

The man, Maximilian Kolbe, had an extraordinary vision
of what anyone could do to change the face of the world.

St. Maximilian was born Raymond Kolbe in Poland, January 8, 1894. In 1910, he entered the Conventual Franciscan Order. He was sent to study in Rome where he was ordained a priest in 1918.

Father Maximilian returned to Poland in 1919 and began spreading the Militia of the Immaculata movement of Marian consecration which he founded on October 16, 1917. In 1927, he established an evangelisation centre near Warsaw called Niepokalanow, the "City of the Immaculata." By 1939, the City had expanded from eighteen friars to an incredible 650, making it the largest Catholic religious house in the world.

To better "win the world for the Immaculate," the friars utilized the most modern printing techniques. This enabled them to publish countless catechetical and devotional tracts, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 230,000 and a monthly magazine with a circulation of over one million. Maximilian started a radio station and planned to build a motion picture studio--he was a true "apostle of the mass media." He envisioned missionary centres worldwide.

In 1941, the Nazis imprisoned Father Maximilian in the Auschwitz death camp. There he offered his life for another prisoner and was condemned to death in a starvation bunker. Pope John Paul II canonized Maximilian as a "martyr of charity" in 1982. St. Maximilian Kolbe is considered a patron of journalists, families, prisoners, the pro-life movement and the chemically addicted.