Patron Saint: st Maximillian Kolb Omi
We have humbly placed the Soul Provider Trust under the patronage of St Maximillian Kolb OMI. He is the Patron Saint of Journalists, the Family, the Pro Life Movement, Prisoners and the Chemically Addicted.
Maximilian was born in 1894 in Poland and became a Franciscan. He contracted tuberculosis and, though he recovered, he remained frail all his life. Before his ordination as a priest, Maximilian founded the Immaculata Movement devoted to Our Lady.
After receiving a doctorate in theology, he spread the Movement through a magazine entitled “The Knight of the Immaculata” and helped form a community of 800 men, the largest in the world.
Maximilian went to Japan where he built a comparable monastery and then on to India where he furthered the Movement. In 1936 he returned home because of ill health. After the Nazi invasion in 1939, he was imprisoned and released for a time. But in 1941 he was arrested again and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
On July 31, 1941, in reprisal for one prisoner’s escape, ten men were chosen to die. Fr Kolbe offered himself in place of a young husband and father. And he was the last to die, enduring two weeks of starvation, thirst, and neglect. He was canonized by John Paul II in 1982. His feast day is August 14th.
Objectives
- To reach people who may be influenced by the powerful forces of the secular culture yet who inwardly desire an authentic relationship with God.
- To enhance the active learning capacity of South African scholars and students, in a positive and quantifiable way, by alleviating short-term hunger; providing an incentive to attend school regularly and punctually; and addressing certain micro-nutrient deficiencies.
- To work with people of the world’s six leading faiths :- Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism to produce greater understanding between these faiths through meaningful encounters.
- To bring the Word of God to people from different cultural backgrounds and communities, who may not necessarily have access to a church or church related services due to a number of varying circumstances, for example living rural communities, the armed forces, prisons etc
- To provide inspiring, high-quality, faith-based communications that deliver timely, relevant and practical tools to help subscribers understand and more fully and effectively practice their faith in daily life.
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