1917 was the year of the October Revolution in Russia, but also the year of the appearances of Our Lady in Fatima! In Rome Freemasonry was celebrating their 200^th anniversary. Everywhere you looked you could see flags and posters depicting St. Michael the Archangel being conquered and trampled underfoot by Lucifer. Long processions winded their way through the Eternal City toward St. Peter’s Square. The marchers sang blasphemous songs and carried banners with slogans such as: “Satan will reign in the Vatican and the Pope will be his servant.”

At that same time a young Polish Franciscan happened to be in Rome also: Brother Maximilian Maria Kolbe, a theology student at the Gregorian University. He was compelled to witness these menacing demonstrations. “Is it possible,” he asked himself, “that our enemies should make such a display of force in order to defeat is. while we fold our hands in our laps and do nothing? After all, do we not have much more powerful weapons; can we not count on all of heaven, and especially on the Immaculata?”

The young religious brother meditated on Sacred Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, the teachings of the great Marian saints, for example, those of St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort; he also pondered the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, as well as the meaning of the appearances of Our Lady in Lourdes. Indeed, all of these truths and mysteries not only have spiritual significance but also are extremely practical because of their social relevance. “The spotless Virgin, vanquisher of all heresies, will not retreat before the enemy who raises his head against Her. When She finds faithful servants who obey Her command, She will win new victories, greater than we can ever imagine.”

In 1917 Rome was celebrating another anniversary, however, a day of victory for the Immaculata: the instantaneous conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne, a Jew, in the year 1842, thanks to graces obtained through the Miraculous Medal. This coincidence gave Br. Maximilian the idea of founding a Knighthood of the Immaculata. Its emblem would be the Miraculous Medal. Three days after the miracle of the sun in Fatima, on October 16, 1917, Br. Maximilian, with permission from his superior, founded together with six confreres the Militia Immaculatae while kneeling before Our Lady’s altar in the chapel of the Seraphic College in Rome.

The founders of the MI

Maximilian rear left