Wow! What a great book! I finished it in less than a week and was sorry to complete it because it was like losing a friend. This wonderful little biography of Saint Maximilian Kolbe by Maria Winowska has great authenticity because she was a fellow Pole who was a contemporary of Saint Maximilian Kolbe and she also spent one year in a Nazi concentration camp before being freed by Allied soldiers. Maria Winowska writes a little gem about the life of Saint Raymond (his secular first name) Maximilian Kolbe that sadly so few people have read or even know about nowadays. I strongly urge you to read it if you want to learn about the life of this great saint who in many ways reminds me of St. Francis of Assisi. In fact, St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest who patterned his life after the great St. Francis, and much more so after the Blessed Virgin Mary whom he called, "The Immaculata." This wonderfully written book has a very strong spiritual dimension to it; which was the essential ingredient in the life of Saint Maximilian Kolbe who dedicated his life to the "The Immaculata" who appeared to him as a boy of 10 offering him two crowns, one red and one white. The red standing for martyrdom and the white for purity. The boy chose both crowns to the immense pleasure of The Immaculate One. Both crowns were earned by St. Maximilian Kolbe in his lifetime through his chastity, poverty, and obedience as a Franciscan priest; and his martyrdom at Auschwitz on the eve of The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 14, 1941. Don't miss reading this anointed book and you will fall in love with Saint Maximilian Kolbe.