Saint Maximilian Kolbe's 'Secret' Weapon

Cover of the January 1922 issue of St. Maximilian's 'The Knight of the Immaculate' periodical, depicting Our Lady 'flanked by two swords impaling the serpents and propaganda of heresy and Masonry' [taken from Fr. Angelo Mary Geiger's Mary Victrix blog]
[The following is excerpted from "Kolbe: Saint of the Immaculata," edited by Brother Francis M. Kalvelage, FI.]

"Maximilian's secret weapon...is a medal of Mary that is really no secret. It just seems though it is, as it isn't being used and propagated as St. Maximilian would have us use it in bringing souls to Christ."

"The Medal of the Immaculate Conception (popularly known as the Miraculous Medal) figured very prominently from the very beginning of the Militia Immaculatae, in St. Maximilian's mind and actions. In his own words, 'Because...conversion and sanctification are divine graces, the Miraculous Medal will be a first class means for attaining our purpose. For that reason it is a preeminent weapons of the Militia; it is the bullet with which a faithful soldier hits the enemy, that is evil [sin] and thus rescues souls.'"

"The story of the miraculous conversion of the [agnostic] Jew, Alphonse Ratisbonne, related in his seminary days, convinced St. Maximilian of the power of Mary Immaculate working through this sacramental....It seems he never left 'the City of the Immaculate' without being well armed with his 'bullets.' Kolbe, a truly apostolic man, would never consciously let an opportunity go by to win a soul the grace of conversion."

"In Kolbe's mind the Medals were even more than a great aid in bringing about conversions. Besides being a proof of the unwavering trust in Our Lady's powerful role in bringing about a change of heart, members of the Militia were to wear the Medal as a sign of their total consecration to Mary, and to recite daily the invocation circling the image of the Immaculate on the medal, 'Oh Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.' To the last sentence he added, 'especially the Masons and the enemies of the Church.'"

"The [M]edal honors Mary in her great prerogative of the Immaculate Conception, and also depicts Mary as the Mediatrix of all graces....On the opposite side we are reminded by the two Hearts, the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that the whole purpose of the Militia Immaculatae which...is to establish, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus throughout the whole world in every soul living and to the end of time- and that 'as soon as possible, as soon as possible!'"