In 1938, with the rise of Nazism and anti-Semitism in Germany, her prioress helped her escape to the Netherlands. She hid there and continued her studies until Aug. 2, 1942, when the Gestapo arrested her and her sister due to their Jewish heritage.
Teresa never denied her Jewish heritage and was killed in a gas chamber seven days later in Auschwitz along with her sister.
Pope John Paul II canonized her in 1998. She is co-patroness of Europe.
St. Maximilian Kolbe’s feast day is August 14. Fr. Kolbe lived his priestly ministry spreading the Gospel message through the use of media-newspapers, magazines and radio, but he died laying down his life for another man in a Nazi concentration camp.
He was born Raymond Kolbe in 1894 to poor and pious Catholic parents. At age 12, he had a vision of the Mother Mary in which she asked him to choose whether he would accept a white crown, which meant that he should persevere in purity, or whether he would accept a red crown, which meant that he should become a martyr. He told Mary that he would accept both.
He entered the Franciscan seminary the following year and was tempted to leave to join the military, but he persevered and made first vows with the Conventual Franciscans in 1911. He took the name Maximilian and was ordained a priest in 1918 at the age of 24.