On Saturday, October 26, 2024, the Province of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe in Brazil celebrated the 50th anniversary of its foundation.
The Minister General, Friar Carlos TROVARELLI, presided over a Mass of Thanksgiving which commemorated the arrival of the friars from the Province of the Immaculate Mother of God in Poland (Warsaw). The Mass was celebrated at the São Francisco de Assis Shrine Basilica in Brasilia, Brazil. During the Mass, three friars of the Province made their solemn profession. They are Friars João Vitor GOMES DA FONSECA, Christian César SILVA SANTOS, and Thiago DA SILVA DE OLIVEIRA.
The mission in Brazil was founded by the Province of Warsaw in thanksgiving for the beatification of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe in 1971. The first missionary from Poland to arrive in Brazil was Friar Augustyn (Stefan) JANUSZEWICZ (†2011). He arrived on October 16, 1974, in Rio de Janeiro, and moved to the Diocese of Uruaçu, in Brazil’s Central-West Region, where he began service as a missionary. The mission became a Custody in 1983 and a Province in 2003.
The Province of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe has eighty-seven solemnly professed friars. It is present across three Regions of Brazil: the Central-West Region (Brasília State, Goiás State), the Northeast Region (Bahia State, Paraíba State) and the North Region (Amazonas State, Tocantins State). Later if founded missions in Juruá and Tefé, in Amazonas State. At that time it was the largest Province in Latin America, with a promising outlook in terms of presence and growth. In 2021, it erected the Delegation of St. Anthony in Brazil’s Northeast Region. Today the Province has nineteen communities, fifteen friaries, four filial houses and two mission houses.
All these blessings give us many reasons to thank God as we celebrate this anniversary.
Friar Gilberto DE JESUS RODRIGUES, Minister Provincial
