Marking the Centenary of St. Maximilian’s Ordination and First Mass

Before leaving Rome for Nemi, the site of the Extraordinary General Chapter of our Order, Our Lady of the Angels Province Minister Provincial, the Very Reverend Fr. James McCurry, OFM Conv. and our Province Delegate to the Militia of the Immaculata, Fr. Jobe Abbass, OFM Conv. made an afternoon pilgrimage to the churches where St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, OFM Conv. was ordained a priest 100 years ago, by Cardinal Basilio Pompilj, on April 28, 1918  (Minor Basilica Sant’Andrea della Valle) and where he celebrated his first Mass on April 29, 1918 (Basilica di Sant’Andrea delle Fratte). Their pilgrimage started at the feet of the Immaculate at the Spanish Steps and then they continued on to the Basilica di Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, at the altar of St. Maximilian’s first Mass, where the Immaculata had appeared to Alfons Ratisbonne in 1842, and where the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima was being venerated.  They then proceeded to the minor basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle, whose magnificence surely reflected the solemnity of St. Maximilan’s ordination.  Their common prayer was to recommend our Chapter deliberations to Our Lady and St. Maximilian and, once again, to ask their intercessory help and blessing upon the new quadrennium of Our Lady of the Angels Province.