Catholic Saints Podcast: St. Maximilian Kolbe

Host: Taylor Kemp
Guest: Anthony d’Ambrosio, writer and director of Triumph of the Heart
Date: September 12, 2025

Episode Overview

This special episode of the Catholic Saints podcast explores the extraordinary final days of St. Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish priest who offered his life for another man in Auschwitz. Taylor Kemp interviews Anthony d’Ambrosio, whose film Triumph of the Heart focuses on Kolbe’s heroic sacrifice and the deeper spiritual and cultural battles the saint engaged in. The episode moves beyond a biographical sketch to examine the meaning of hope, suffering, and Christian witness in the darkest of times.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Focus of the Film: Beginning Where Most End

• [02:23] Anthony explains the film starts with Kolbe’s most iconic act—volunteering to die in place of another prisoner in Auschwitz’s starvation bunker.
• This moment is usually seen as the culmination of Kolbe's life, but Anthony wanted to begin there, highlighting both the spiritual and political dimensions:

  “It’s sort of like the Passion of the Christ, but the Passion of Kolbe… his story is as much about a saint and Catholicism as it is about Poland and Germany—the conflict between the Catholic culture of Poland and the will-to-power brought forward by the Nazis.” — Anthony d’Ambrosio [02:52]

2. Kolbe’s Role as Evangelist and National Figure

• [04:32] Kolbe leveraged modern media for evangelization, likened to the "Bishop Barron or Mother Angelica" of his age.
• The Nazis systematically targeted influential Polish figures like Kolbe, aiming to destroy Polish identity and assimilate it into Germanic culture.

3. A Political and Spiritual Defiance

• [06:30] Kolbe’s act of stepping out of line wasn’t just personal self-sacrifice, but also a “political act” against Nazi ideology, representing both Catholic and Polish defiance.
• The intertwining of religious and national identity is key: singing Catholic hymns was not just spiritual, but also a patriotic act in Poland.

4. Inside the Bunker: Eyewitness Accounts and Kolbe’s Influence

• [08:45] Information about the starvation bunker comes from a Polish prisoner/translator who witnessed the daily routine.
• Kolbe initiated communal prayer and hymn-singing, moving the men from isolation into spiritual unity.
• After 14 days, the singing began to spread to the entire prison block—transforming the dungeon-like cell into a “cathedral.”

  "It sounded like this place was like a cathedral… you can only imagine how much that would have aggravated the Nazis.”
  — Anthony d’Ambrosio [10:27]

• Kolbe and three others survived to the end, ultimately executed by the Nazis, but their spiritual resistance left a profound mark.

5. Hope Amid Suffering: Film Themes

• [12:53] The central theme is hope—how individuals and cultures respond to suffering.
• The film contrasts Christian hope and self-sacrifice with the destructiveness of the Nazi (and Communist) will to power.

  “We were trying to… show Kolbe as the Christian response to all the things that… are still sort of like the foundational ideas that are fighting for attention in our culture.”
  — Anthony d’Ambrosio [14:14]

6. Kolbe’s Witness for Today: Shouldering Burdens and the Vision of Heaven

• [15:50] Two main takeaways for today’s listeners:
  1. Christians are called to shoulder heavy burdens, to “pick up your cross,” while our culture favors comfort and avoidance of suffering.

     “There isn’t really a sense of reason to do hard, self-sacrificial things in that worldview. ... The world is made a better place when we are accepting that cross and choosing it and shouldering it.”
     — Anthony d’Ambrosio [17:16]

  2. Kolbe’s strength lay in his vision of heaven and his deep relationship to Mary—this hope enabled him to endure and love in the face of suffering.

     “The strength of our desire for heaven... is a big part of what makes us willing and able to shoulder the burdens that God has for us.”
     — Anthony d’Ambrosio [19:02]

7. The Paradox of the Christian Yoke

• [21:44] Discussing Jesus’ teaching about the yoke:

  “If you’re saying my yoke, then it is heavy... When the Lord gives us a burden, has this strange combination, like paradoxically, it’s always the heaviest one... but also the lightest in the way that it feels.”
  — Anthony d’Ambrosio [21:52]

• Surrendering to God’s will brings both challenge and mysterious fulfillment, as Kolbe’s example demonstrates.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Kolbe’s Challenge to Nazi Ideology:

  “Frail, fragile, broken men are beating this whole kind of Nietzschean willpower... all of that stuff is just completely diffused by Kolbe's testimony.”
  — Taylor Kemp & Anthony d’Ambrosio [11:23–11:28]

• On Christian Response to Suffering:

  “The world will unravel... there’s actual, like, political, global, universal stakes to the decision about what we do with our suffering.”
  — Anthony d’Ambrosio [17:42]

• On the Source of Hope:

  “Kolbe was able to do that not because of this great discipline... but his motivation stemmed very directly from his love of Mary and his vision from heaven that he had this very clear, palpable dream...”
  — Anthony d’Ambrosio [18:25]

• Personal Reflection on Transformation:

  “For anybody out there... where you’re living for yourself, it’s just torture. ... When you earnestly take up a desire to love God and neighbor... it’s also the best thing. And you know that.”
  — Taylor Kemp [19:49]

Key Timestamps

| Timestamp | Topic/Quote | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:23 | Anthony: Why the film focuses on Kolbe’s final act in Auschwitz | | 04:32 | Kolbe’s role as Catholic media evangelist and the Nazis’ targeting of Polish identity | | 08:45 | Daily life and transformation inside the starvation bunker | | 10:27 | The cell turned into a “cathedral” through prayer and hymns | | 12:53 | Anthony describes the film’s overarching themes | | 15:50 | Lessons for today: carrying the cross, meaning of suffering, and the hope of heaven | | 21:44 | The paradox of the yoke—a burdensome task that is light with God’s help |

Conclusion

This episode delves deep into St. Maximilian Kolbe’s witness of hope, courage, and the power of faith in the face of unspeakable suffering. By retracing Kolbe’s final days, both the film and this conversation reveal why his story transcends mere history to speak radically into modern challenges—reminding Christians of the paradoxical joy and strength found in embracing the cross.

Highly recommended: Watch Triumph of the Heart and ponder how St. Maximilian Kolbe’s example might inspire your own response to suffering, service, and hope today.