A Reflection on the Film, Triumph of the Heart

​Sr. Catherine Marie Michael


I recently watched the the film, Triumph of the Heart, about St. Maximilian Kolbe’s experience
in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Because a prisoner escaped, other prisoners are chosen
to go into solitary confinement without food, and Fr. Kolbe takes the place of a man who has a
family. Through his faith in God he is given, throughout the action of the film, the grace to rest in
the peace of Christ and persevere in love.

In the camp, the Nazi guards determine the conditions of their lives and threaten to control how
they react and how they view themselves, as if it was an experiment. Fr. Kolbe encourages his
cellmates to pass the time singing songs that remind them of their heritage and identity, which
further gives those who hear them, courage in knowing that they are not alone in the struggle to
not be defined by their captors who perceive them as no better than beasts. It becomes
understood that other prisoners who were confined in the cell before them had gone insane, and
when their bodies were removed they had bite marks which showed that they bit one another
out of starvation. It would seem that the powerful have supreme authority over those whom they
deem less valuable. Power gives them the authority to determine the circumstances of what is
true, without the need to seek Truth, the overarching meaning of life, as long as they are able to
rule. In their comfort they have the luxury of indifference (cf. C.S.Lewis). Like Pilate during
Christ’s Passion, asking “What is truth?” as the God-Man stands before him, there is a clash
between what is asserted to be true by worldly men and the Creator who is the Source and
Author of the Truth about all that exists, the authoritative Word (John 18:38).

Fr. Kolbe knows the reality of heaven because he cannot deny an encounter he had with Mary,
the Mother of God, and he adheres to that reality through prayer, asking for Mary’s intercession
to give him the words needed to convert his cell-mates’ hearts. The prisoners with their own
stories and personalities eventually accept Fr. Kolbe’s offer of hearing their confessions. One of
the prisoners confesses that he told a woman who ended up to be a spy, the names of leaders
subversive to the Third Reich, and that he included Fr. Kolbe’s name on the list. In this moment
of budding tension it seems that Fr. Kolbe could become angry with the man, but he realizes
that it was God’s will that he serve Him by being there, that he was meant to be there for them,
so he is able to personally forgive and to act in persona Christi, absolving their sins.

By His authority to forgive sins, Christ exercises the might of Divine Authority and extends to us
His generous love and mercy. Although the fallen world’s insanity closes in on them, Fr. Kolbe
ministers to his cellmates so that they might rely on the peace that only Christ can give and be
resolute in their shared struggle out of exile, a crucible marked by cruelty and suffering. Fr.
Kolbe prompts them to finish the race well, to accept and know Christ as Savior, to trust that He
has ultimate authority and to follow Him, the Shepherd of Souls. Given the gift of life entrusted
to them, they are offered time to seek and love God and to further choose to live in this fallen
world in obedience to God’s laws, so that their final actions with the help of God’s grace,
preserve the dignity and original beauty of their souls (cf. CCC 1701). They seem to be
enlightened with a flash of understanding, that God created each person to belong in His love
and for a divine purpose that exceeds fallen man’s limitations, not for insanity, despair, and
death, and that each of their lives matters to God (cf. Mark 12:17; May, Ch 6). They struggle to
not to be defined by despair, so that in heaven they may share the joy of the victory of life over
death that Christ accomplished so that all might be saved.

Fr. Kolbe clings to the Truth of the Catholic faith. Truth however, is not abstract. Truth is a
Person and by abiding in Truth we can find peace and sanity no matter what suffering and
insanity exists in the shadow of death (cf. Luke 1:68-79; Wiley, p. 45). We find rest in the Prince
of Peace who, in humility took on our human nature to elevate us through participation in His
divine nature, giving us His very self (2Peter 1:4). By His grace we are healed with renewed
minds in Christ (Rom 12: 2). We enter into the life of grace which is participation in God’s very
life and are given refuge in His will which is the way of peace, no longer slaves to sin and death,
but sons and daughters of God, free to inherit eternal life.


Triumph of the Heart, The Passion of St. Maximilian Kolbe was written and directed by Anthony
D’Ambrosio. Thank you to The Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore for
hosting the screening of the film in September 2025. https://www.triumphoftheheart.com/

References:
Lewis, C.S., The Screwtape Letters, ISBN 0006280609.
May, William, An Introduction to Moral Theology, 2nd edition, Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Div, 2003,
Ch. 6.
Sheed, Frank, Theology and Sanity, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1993.
Wiley, P. et al, The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Craft of Catechesis, Ignatius Press, San
Francisco, 2008, Ch 3, pp. 45-46, Doctrine is personal.
CCC = Catechism of the Catholic Church, ISBN 0-385-50819-0.

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