What happened to St. Maximilian Kolbe’s beard? The answer may surprise you
The last photo of St. Maximilian Kolbe before his final arrest shows him without his iconic long beard, a detail that surprised many. Kolbe shaved his beard to blend in with other Franciscans and to avoid Nazi attention after Poland’s 1939 invasion, yet kept it as a relic later. The beard is now the only surviving first‑class relic of Kolbe, preserved after his body was incinerated at Auschwitz. Father James McCurry explains the beard symbolised Kolbe’s missionary past in Japan and helped him stand out among his peers. An account details how a brother cut Kolbe’s beard, the saint’s refusal to keep it, and its eventual storage in a pickle jar before becoming a relic.
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St. Maximilian Kolbe’s iconic long beard, often seen in photographs, was deliberately removed twice—first after his missionary work in Japan to keep a reminder of that period, and later in 1939 to avoid drawing Nazi attention. After a brother cut it off, the beard was briefly tossed into a stove that failed to ignite, then rescued and kept in a pickle jar; it now serves as the saint’s sole first‑class relic 1
Kolbe grew his beard during six years of missionary service in Japan, where long beards were customary among missionaries. He retained it afterward as a personal symbol of his missionary identity and to stand out in his evangelization efforts in Poland 1
Following the 1939 Nazi invasion, Kolbe chose to shave the beard to blend in with his Conventual Franciscan brothers and avoid provoking the occupying forces. He is quoted as saying, “Beards provoke the enemy… I can part with my beard. I can’t sacrifice my habit,” highlighting his pragmatic approach to safety 1
A fellow brother cut off Kolbe’s beard at his request. When the brother attempted to save it, Kolbe ordered it thrown into a stove; the fire never lit, so the brother later retrieved the beard and stored it in a pickle jar. This preserved hair is now the only surviving first‑class relic of Kolbe 1
The beard remains the sole first‑class relic of St. Maximilian Kolbe, treasured by the Franciscan community and highlighted in homilies commemorating his martyrdom, such as Father James McCurry’s 2016 address on the 75th anniversary of Kolbe’s death 1*
How did Maximilian Kolbe’s beard become a relic?
Saint Maximilian Kolbe’s beard is considered a personal relic because it consists of hair that came directly from his body. It was not recovered from Auschwitz after his death: Kolbe’s body was cremated on 15 August 1941, and Pope John Paul II later noted that “all the rest was devoured by the fire of the crematoria.”
The commonly transmitted account is that, before Kolbe was arrested and deported to Auschwitz, a barber at Niepokalanów, his Franciscan community in Poland, shaved him. The barber recognized Kolbe’s holiness—or at least deeply revered him—and kept the cut hairs instead of discarding them. Those preserved hairs were later authenticated and venerated as a relic of the saint.
Thus, the beard became a relic through preservation of hair cut during Kolbe’s lifetime, not through anything connected with the cremation of his body. This also explains why relics associated with Kolbe can exist even though no substantial remains survived Auschwitz.
The official sources supplied here confirm the essential historical context: Kolbe was killed at Auschwitz after offering his life for another prisoner, and his body was cremated. Pope John Paul II described his death as the supreme witness of Christian brotherly love and formally proclaimed him a martyr in 1982.
The detailed story of the barber and the preservation of the beard, however, is not documented in the sources available here, so the identity of the barber and the precise chain of custody should be treated as a traditional biographical account unless confirmed by the relic’s ecclesiastical documentation. Its devotional significance is nevertheless clear: the relic points not to a magical power in the hair, but to the person of Kolbe and, above all, to the charity by which he gave his life for a fellow prisoner.