The Third Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate
Membership in the Immaculate ‘Soldiers means complete dedication to the Kingdom of God and to the salvation of souls through Mary Immaculate.” -Pope St. John Paul II-
The Immaculate ‘Soldiers is the Eric Michel Ministries International New Life Catholic Ministry version of the Roman Catholic Militia Immaculatae (meaning the “Army of the Immaculate One”), called in English the Knights of the Immaculata, is a worldwide Catholic evangelization movement founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe in 1917.
Joining the IS involves making a personal act of consecration to Mary. Members wear the Miraculous Medal as an outward sign of their consecration. The purpose of the Knights is contained in these words: to do all you can for the conversion of sinners, heretics, schismatics and so on, above all the Masons, and for the sanctification of all persons under the sponsorship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Mediatrix.
Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, 1938.
Maximilian Maria Kolbe OFMConv (born Raymund Kolbe; Polish: Maksymilian Maria Kolbe; 8 January 1894 – 14 August 1941) was a Polish Catholic priest and Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a man named Franciszek Gajowniczek in the German death camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II. He had been active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, founding and supervising the monastery of Niepokalanów near Warsaw, operating an amateur radio station (SP3RN), and founding or running several other organizations and publications.
On 10 October 1982, Pope John Paul II canonized Kolbe and declared him a martyr of charity. The Catholic Church venerates him as the patron saint of amateur radio operators, drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, and prisoners. John Paul II declared him “the patron of our difficult century”. His feast day is 14 August, the day of his martyrdom.
Maximilian Maria Kolbe OFM Conv
Due to Kolbe’s efforts to promote consecration and entrustment to Mary, he is known as an “apostle of consecration to Mary”.
At the end of July 1941, a prisoner escaped from the camp, prompting the deputy camp commander, SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, to pick ten men to be starved to death in an underground bunker to deter further escape attempts. When one of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek (also a Polish Catholic), cried out, “My wife! My children!” Kolbe volunteered to take his place.
According to an eyewitness, who was an assistant janitor at that time, in his prison cell Kolbe led the prisoners in prayer. Each time the guards checked on him, he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looking calmly at those who entered. After they had been starved and deprived of water for two weeks, only Kolbe and three others remained alive.
The guards wanted the bunker emptied, so they gave the four remaining prisoners lethal injections of carbolic acid. Kolbe is said to have raised his left arm and calmly waited for the deadly injection. He died on 14 August 1941. He was cremated on 15 August, the feast day of the Assumption of Mary.
The Militia of the Immaculata (MILITIA IMMACULATAE) from Studio Siposh on YouTube
The Immaculata prayer is a Traditional Catholic Marian prayer composed by Saint Maximillian Kolbe.
It is a prayer of consecration to the Immaculata, i.e. the immaculately conceived Virgin Mary.
The consecration prayer is as follows:
O Immaculata, Queen of Heaven and earth, refuge of sinners and our most loving Mother, God has willed to entrust the entire order of mercy to you. I, (name), a repentant sinner, cast myself at your feet, humbly imploring you to take me with all that I am and have, wholly to yourself as your possession and property. Please make of me, of all my powers of soul and body, of my whole life, death and eternity, whatever most pleases you.
If it pleases you, use all that I am and have without reserve, wholly to accomplish what was said of you: “She will crush your head,” and “You alone have destroyed all heresies in the whole world.” Let me be a fit instrument in your immaculate and merciful hands for introducing and increasing your glory to the maximum in all the many strayed and indifferent souls, and thus help extend as far as possible the blessed kingdom of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. For wherever you enter, you obtain the grace of conversion and growth in holiness, since it is through your hands that all graces come to us from the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
℣. Allow me to praise you, O Sacred Virgin
℟. Give me strength against your enemies
Amen
A shorter version of the prayer can be used for the daily renewal of the consecration:
Immaculata, Queen and Mother of the Church, I renew my consecration to you for this day and for always, so that you might use me for the coming of the Kingdom of Jesus in the whole world. To this end, I offer you all my prayers, actions and sacrifices of this day.
Sœur Catherine Labouré, née le 2 mai 1806 à Fain-lès-Moutiers en France et décédée le 31 décembre 1876 à Paris, est une religieuse française de la congrégation des Filles de la charité de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. Elle a fait part à son confesseur, le père Aladèle, des apparitions de la Vierge Marie qu’elle dit avoir eues en juillet, novembre et décembre 1830 durant son noviciat (appelé séminaire chez les Filles de la charité), en la chapelle de son couvent de la rue du Bac à Paris.
Cet événement est à l’origine de la « Médaille miraculeuse », qui est diffusée en plusieurs millions d’exemplaires en quelques années. Cette médaille est toujours portée de nos jours par de nombreux catholiques.
Catherine est béatifiée en 1933, puis canonisée en 1947 par Pie XII. La fête liturgique de sainte Catherine Labouré est commémorée par la famille vincentienne le 28 novembre et par l’Église catholique (martyrologe romain) le 31 décembre.
Catherine Labouré, DC (May 2, 1806 – December 31, 1876) was a French member of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and a Marian visionary. She is believed to have relayed the request from the Blessed Virgin Mary to create the Miraculous Medal, now worn by millions of people around the world. Labouré spent forty years caring for the aged and infirm. For this, she is called the patroness of seniors.
Labouré stated that on July 19, 1830, the eve of the feast of St. Vincent de Paul, she woke up after hearing the voice of a child calling her to the chapel, where she heard the Virgin Mary say to her, “God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will be contradicted, but do not fear; you will have the grace to do what is necessary. Tell your spiritual director all that passes within you. Times are evil in France and in the world”.
On November 27, 1830, Labouré reported that Mary returned to her during evening meditations. She displayed herself inside an oval frame, standing upon a globe; rays of light came out of her hands in the direction of a globe. Around the margin of the frame appeared the words “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” As Labouré watched, the frame seemed to rotate, showing a circle of twelve stars, a large letter M surmounted by a cross, and the stylized Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary underneath. Asked why some of the rays of light did not reach the earth, Mary reportedly replied, “Those are the graces for which people forget to ask.” Mary then asked her to take these images to her father confessor, telling him that they should be put on medallions. “All who wear them will receive great graces.”
Labouré did so, and after two years of investigation and observation of her normal daily behaviour, the priest took the information to his archbishop without revealing her identity. The request was approved, and the design of the medallions was commissioned through French goldsmith Adrien Vachette. They proved to be exceedingly popular; millions of the Catholic faithful quickly adopted the Miraculous Medal. It also played an essential role in the proclamation by Pope Pius IX of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 1854. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception had not yet been officially promulgated, but the medal, with its “conceived without sin” slogan, was influential in widespread approval of the idea.
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