Artist/Designer: Barbara Breitling

Location: St Simon’s Church, Glasgow

Date: 1996

Photographer: Susan Bradbury

Made in 1996 by Barbara Breitling of Warsaw to a design by Danish Jukni of Albania. From the Polish Chapel at St Simon’s Church, Partick, Glasgow. Sadly, this Church was destroyed by arson in 2021.

St Maximilian Kolbe died age 47 in Auschwitz. In retribution after a prisoner escaped, 10 prisoners were to be starved to death in an underground bunker. When one of the 10 cried out “My wife! My children!” Kolbe volunteered to take his place and was allowed to do so. He was canonised in 1982 and he is the patron saint of political prisoners; more surprisingly he is also the patron saint of amateur radio operators.