Mississauga, located about 30 kilometres west of Toronto, has always been a kind of 'hotel' for Poles living in the city. They worked in the provincial capital of Ontario and, due to lower taxes, lived and had their homes in the rapidly expanding Mississauga district. Today, there are around 100,000 Poles or Canadians of Polish origin who acknowledge their Polish roots.

Beginning in 1970, despite the continued growth of the Polish population in Mississauga, there was no Polish church in the city. The faithful, wishing to attend Polish masses, had to travel to churches in Toronto. In an effort to change this situation, both individuals and Polish community organisations began to make efforts to establish a Polish parish in Mississauga. Signatures were collected on several occasions and the problem was presented to the diocesan authorities, arguing that a church, a place to attend Mass together, would give Poles a sense of unity and an awareness of the deep faith professed in their mother tongue.

On 15 November 1979, permission was obtained to establish a Polish parish dedicated to Blessed Maximilian Kolbe. On 2 December 1979, the first inaugural Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Philip Pocock. Fr Stanislaw Bak OMI became the parish priest of the new parish and, on 15 April 1981, announced to the parishioners the happy news that land had been purchased for the construction of a new temple. A few months later, on 27 September to be exact, the consecration of the site for the future church took place.

"The envoy of the Polish Episcopate, Bishop Jan Wieczorek of Opole, blessed the building site and, in a symbolic gesture, scattered there the soil brought from Auschwitz, the place of martyrdom of the patron saint of our parish," wrote Father Janusz Blazejak OMI in his book Church Our Home . "(...) In outlining his vision of the parish, Fr Stanisław Bąk OMI convinced the faithful to be a living example of our commitment and determination to serve not only our parish, but also the wider community. May our way of life be an invitation to others who wish to participate in our faith and culture to join our parish family."

An extremely momentous event in the life of the parish was the elevation to the altars of the patron saint, Blessed Maximilian Kolbe, in 1982. A parish delegation led by the parish priest, Fr Stanislaw Bąk OMI, travelled to Rome for the canonisation ceremony. Independently, the parish organised a celebration of the canonisation for the entire local Polish community, which ended with a banquet. It was attended by Canadian politicians, representatives of the Mississauga municipal government and Polish organisations. Mieczysław Mazurek, a prisoner of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, was also present. In March 1983, the Don Hawkey building company began construction of the new church. The entire project was valued at $2 million. The company, in order to reduce the cost of building the church, exceptionally agreed to have volunteers participate in the construction. So parishioners set to work. The work went on for several months, even during weekends. Thanks to the commitment of Polish carpenters, bricklayers and unskilled workers, by late autumn the church was ready for the laying of the foundation stone. The ceremony took place on 22 May 1983, with Mass celebrated by Cardinal Władysław Rubin.

The interior decoration of the church was also begun. The bas-relief in the main altar and the Stations of the Cross were made by Krzysztof Skoczylas.

Finally, after many months of hard work, the first service was held in the completed St Maximilian Kolbe Church on 18 December 1983. A few months later, during Pope John Paul II's pastoral visit to Canada in 1984, the church was consecrated by Gerard Emmett Cardinal Carter.

The parish of St Maximilian Kolbe has the unique privilege of being in possession of the first degree relics of St John Paul II, St Maximilian Kolbe, St Eugene de Mazenod, St Padre Pio, St Louis Grignion de Montfort, St Therese of the Child Jesus, St Sister Faustina Kowalska, St Pius X and Blessed Father Jerzy Popieluszko. The relics are displayed on the left side of the main altar under the image of the church's patron saint.

Outside the church are two bas-reliefs of St Maximilian Kolbe, including one consecrated on 14 September 1984 by Pope John Paul II while in Toronto on a pilgrimage across Canada, a statue of St John Paul II and a statue of Jesus and a kneeling St Peter funded for World Youth Day in Toronto.

At the entrance to the car park next to the church is a stone obelisk commemorating former political prisoners under communism in Poland and prisoners of German concentration camps during World War II erected in 2005 by the Polish Association of Former Political Prisoners. The inscription on the monument reads: "God allowed some people to see hell while they were alive and come back to bear witness to the truth."

Location: 4300 Cawthra Road, Mississauga, Ontario, Kanad