When Maximilian Maria Kolbe and his brothers wanted to build a monastery on the south side of Mount Hikosan, even the local Catholics urged the newcomers from Poland to change the location. According to Shintoist beliefs, the location of the monastery on the south side of the mountain was supposed to be against nature. However, the stubbornness of Fr. Kolbe proved prophetic. After the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the monastery survived almost intact, unlike the cathedral and many other buildings, of which only ashes remained.

St Maximilian Kolbe in Japan
The first decades of the 20th century in the Christian churches were marked by missionary activity. This activity, in addition to helping the needy, also dominated the life of Maximilian Maria Kolbe, born in 1894.

From the port of Marseille, he sailed for China, but his teachings did not find fertile ground. In a letter to the Franciscan magazine Voce del Padre, he wrote about those days as follows:

"We are beginning to understand why the Immaculate did not allow Her house 'Niepokalanow' to open in Shanghai, China. She knew that a time of wartime destruction was about to come, with the demolition of numerous buildings and numerous victims".

Maximilian Kolbe left two confreres in the Middle Kingdom and arrived in Nagasaki with the others. On 24 April 1930, tired from the sea voyage and full of doubts and fears, he wondered how he would be received by the subjects of Emperor Shōwa (Hirochito). However, when the taxi stopped in front of Ōura, a church believed to be the oldest in Japan, he saw a statue of the Virgin Mary. He felt then, he recalled, that he was in the right place and that he had to follow the rule of the Militi Immaculatae, the Knighthood of the Immaculate, which he had founded:

To conquer all Japan, all souls and every individual who is and will be, to the Immaculate, and through her to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and to do so... as soon as possible.

The surviving Franciscan friary in Nagasaki
For visitors from all over the world, Nagasaki is not only a place-wound after the explosion of the American atomic bomb, but also a city-relic after Maximilian Maria Kolb. In search of traces of this saint of the Catholic Church, travellers will find themselves in the temples, monastery and garden he founded. However, it is important to remember that what they will see are largely reconstructions. Many visitors will recognise that this lack of originals is a consequence of the events of the tragic 9 August 1945.

The temple, which no longer exists today, was built on the initiative of Fr Kolbe in the style of Western architecture. It was completely wooden and thus managed to be erected in just a few months (consecration on 15 August 1934). After which it survived the atomic bomb blast almost intact. Situated exactly where Maximilian Kolbe had pointed out, on the 'wrong', as the Japanese were convinced, slope of Mount Hikosan, where it was not reached by the shock wave.

Undoubtedly, the sight of the surviving church in a sea of razed buildings must have made an electrifying impression. Unfortunately, back in peacetime, the temple and monastery burned down. All that remained in the ruins was the cooker, about which the Franciscans wrote: "We have, a furnace / similar to a triumphal gate...".

No testimonies have survived describing whether the Nagasaki stove was originally plastered or tiled, in accordance with the practice of European stove-makers. What is known is that after the war, the caretakers of the site did not pay due attention to the unusual monument and it fell into disrepair. It was not until 1982 that the writer and admirer of Polish culture, Shūsaku Endō, visited the monastery and it was he who appealed to the Japanese authorities to preserve the cooker. However, it took more than a dozen years for a pavilion to be built around the brick pillar-furnace, eroded from above, to house a museum, modestly named the Maximilian Maria Kolbe Memorial Chamber. It is significant that it is this historic heat source that has been included in Nagasaki's official register of historical monuments.

Franciscan missions in Japan
The museum is located at the back of a large complex made up of a friary, a school, a kindergarten and a publishing house, on a steep hillside and is described as the 'First House of Saint Kolbe in Nagasaki'. The entrance to it could be overlooked were it not for the statue of Our Lady placed in a display case and the red rug spread on the steps. Following the indications of the Immaculate, one passes through a shop filled with devotional items and enters a white, high-ceilinged interior illuminated by small stained-glass skylights.

In the middle of the room, a replica of Maximilian Kolbe's work cell has been arranged. In the panelled room, we can therefore see the original wooden desk at which Kolbe wrote, as well as numerous photographs or small objects of daily use. An interesting artefact is the Franciscan's diary with photographs from his travels, including Nagasaki. The glass cases also contain liturgical objects belonging to the saint: a chasuble, a missal, prayer books and a chalice. We can also see his habit, rosary and penitential discipline.

A large part of the exhibition is taken up by objects brought from Poland to commemorate Maximilian Kolbe, such as commemorative coins or medals. Also noteworthy is a crucifix, and although it is not associated with the saint, it found its way into the museum. It was found after the war during earthworks and, although it was not possible to estimate its exact age, archaeologists suspect that it is between 330 and 400 years old. It would therefore date from the period of the Tokugawa Shogunate, when Christians were persecuted in Japan and - as in apostolic times - had to go into hiding.

The central figure of the Polish-Japanese Niepokalanow is undoubtedly Maximilian Kolbe, but for the local Catholics, Brother Zeno, or Zenon (Wladyslaw) Zebrowski, became no less important. He came to Japan with the saint, was his right hand, and after his departure - took over the running of all missionary activity. He also developed aid for orphans, and after the dropping of the atomic bomb he supported its victims with extraordinary commitment. In the House of Remembrance, we can therefore find memorabilia dedicated to him as well. It is worth mentioning here that this monk was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Emperor in 1969, and a monument to him was erected at the foot of Mount Fuji in 1979.

Japanese 'Knight of the Immaculate '
In addition to his priestly ministry in Nagasaki, Maximilian Maria Kolbe was involved in teaching philosophy and theology at the seminary, which was called 'Latin' because of the language of instruction. He did not give up his passion for publishing, and only one month after his arrival in the Land of the Cherry Blossom, the first issue of the 'Knight of the Immaculate' appeared in print, in Japanese; the periodical is still in print today. It would not have been possible to realise this undertaking, or at least not at such a pace, without the personal involvement of Fr. Kolbe's personal involvement. The Franciscan was evidently proud of this and reported the success in a letter as follows:

"We now have a circulation of 30,000, and it would be necessary in the near future to have at least 100,000, and if 200,000 or 300,000 or more [...]. Of course, we would also need a roof over these machines, because at present it is so cramped that we are literally sleeping in the attic and we have to be careful not to break the binding of the roof with our heads when passing, but - thanks to the Immaculata - the first building of the Japanese Niepokalanow is already standing.".

The museum displays one of the machines described - an antique printing press and Japanese fonts, and on the wall hang large reproductions of archive photographs in which Maximilian Kolbe is immortalised at work. Archival issues of 'Seibo no Kishi', that is, the 'Knight of the Immaculate' published in the Nipponese language, have also been collected. The exhibition is also decorated with an original telephone from the 1930s, with the help of which the Franciscan realized himself as a manager.

Garden of the Immaculate in Nagasaki - Mugenzai no Sono
On his way to the East, Maximilian Maria Kolbe visited the French Lourdes. It made a great impression on him and he decided to implant its ideas in Nagasaki. To this end, a small garden in the characteristic Japanese style was created on the hillside and named Mugenzai no Sono, or Garden of the Immaculate. A Marian grotto was also designed among the flowers and trees. As with the original, there is also a spring here, to which the testimony of Dr Takashi Nagai, a radiologist, is linked. The water taken from the garden was said to have cured the doctor. A statue of Maximilian Kolbe has also been erected at Mugenzai no Sono, as well as a monument commemorating Pope John Paul II's visit to Nagasaki in 1981, when he met, among others, Brother Zeno.

In addition to the museum, the monastery and the garden, there is also a church, symbolically attributed to Father Maximilian Maria Kolbe. However, it has no strictly historical value. Its white interiors are characterised by a remarkable modesty, typical of Japanese aesthetics. And it is only in the side aisle in the chapel dedicated to the patron that we find an antique object - a carved chair. This piece of furniture, like the cooker, must remember the saint's ministry from a distant Polish land.