“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)

The manifestation of this was the life of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, a Franciscan Conventual Priest who was born in Poland on 8th January 1894. Ordained as a Priest, he founded the sodality called the Legion of Mary Immaculate.

During World War II, he was arrested by the Nazis and sent to the concentration camp at Oswiecim where he offered his life as a victim of love to save a fellow prisoner.

His life was presented to the inmates of Mysore Central prison and to the members of Prison Ministry of India, Mysuru unit, on 29th August by the Capuchin Brothers from Kripalaya — Institute of Philosophy and Religion, Bogadi, Mysuru.

The skit, presented in Kannada for about thirty minutes, conveyed the message that would last for a long time in the hearts and minds of the audience. The audience was moved by the presentation. They applauded the life lived by the saintly priest during the time when human flesh was considered cheap and human life was thrown to the dogs.

Audience imaginatively re-lived the lives of the victims of Nazi cruelty and carried a message that in giving that   we receive and in dying for others we are born to new life of fullness.

—Fr. Rocky D’Cunha Kripalaya, Bogadi