Eighty years ago two of the world’s deadliest weapons were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, bringing near-total destruction.

But a Catholic monastery built in Nagasaki by a future martyr and saint survived and to this day brings a Franciscan message of peace to a place that could easily plunge into hatred and despair.

The Aug. 6, 1945, explosion in the first Japanese city, Hiroshima, instantly killed around 80,000. The number of victims doubled in the following days and months due to injuries and radiation-related diseases. On Aug. 9, 1945, the city of Nagasaki was the next one to be devastated by an atomic bomb.

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An estimated 40,000 to 75,000 people were killed instantly by the blast, heat and radiation from the bomb. Thousands died following the blast. The blast wiped out approximately 8,500 of the 12,000 parishioners at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Nagasaki — Japan’s most Catholic city.

Yet, on a hillside in the Hongouchi district, one building remained standing: a Franciscan friary established by Polish Franciscan Father Maximilian Kolbe.

In 1930, Kolbe, already well known for founding the international Militia Immaculata, or MI movement, in Italy and for founding Niepokalanów — the largest friary and Catholic media centre in Poland — felt called to expand his mission eastward. He arrived in Japan with little more than his Franciscan habit and a dream to spread Marian devotion.

“Kolbe came to Japan in 1930 with almost nothing, not even knowing the language,” said American consecrated virgin Annamaria Mix, who works at the Militia Immaculata Archive in Niepokalanów and is a Knight of the Immaculate herself.

“But his determination was incredible. When the bishop of Nagasaki allowed him to stay on the condition that he would teach in the seminary, Kolbe accepted without hesitation.”

The location of the friary was chosen not for convenience but for conviction. 

“The decision was guided by Franciscan poverty. He purchased the land — about four hectares on the slopes of Mount Hikosan — for 6,800 yen ($46 U.S.). It required enormous effort to level the ground for construction,” said the American archivist.

The friary, named “Mugensai no Sono” (“The Garden of the Immaculate”), became the headquarters for Kolbe’s missionary work in East Asia. A Japanese-language version of the MI magazine called Seibo no Kishi — Japanese for Knight of the Immaculata, was launched, and a small religious community formed around the publishing apostolate.

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While surveying the hillside in Hongouchi, Kolbe discovered a natural spring and envisioned transforming the spot into a replica of the Lourdes grotto of the French shrine.

“Deeply devoted to Our Lady of Lourdes,” Mix said, Kolbe “saw the grotto as both a spiritual anchor and a symbol of healing. Years earlier, he himself had experienced healing through Lourdes water while studying in Rome.”

The grotto in Nagasaki, completed by the friars under his direction, remains intact to this day, a quiet place of prayer and Marian devotion, echoing St. Kolbe’s lifelong mission.

For the future saint, the Japanese mission was more than a chapter in his apostolic journey, it carried a spiritual bond. He believed deeply in the openness of the Japanese people to divine truth, calling them “a people who really search for authentic religion.” That belief drove him to continue praying and sacrificing for their salvation, even from afar.

Recently, stories have circulated suggesting the future saint had a prophetic vision of the atomic bomb and therefore chose the friary location to avoid destruction. Mix clarifies: “That story is not true. He did not foresee the bombing. The friary survived not because of a vision, but through Providence — and, we believe, because of the community’s 1942 consecration to St. Joseph.”

Indeed, while much of Nagasaki was obliterated, Mugensai no Sono — now called Seibo no Kishi — remained intact due to its location behind a mountain ridge that shielded it from the blast’s direct impact.

Today, the friary continues to function, housing friars, publishing the Japanese version of the Knight of the Immaculata magazine and welcoming pilgrims. A small museum commemorates St. Kolbe’s work in Japan.

St. Kolbe was captured by the German occupiers of Poland on Feb. 17, 1941, first placed in the murderous Pawiak Gestapo prison, and transferred to Auschwitz on May 28 that same year. At the end of July, he offered to be locked in a death hunger cell to take the place of a man who had a family. The priest died on Aug. 14, 1941.

His “legacy is alive,” said Mix. “The mission Kolbe started didn’t end with his death in Auschwitz. It continues through the Militia Immaculatae, through the friars in Nagasaki, and through the faithful who visit the site.”

St. John Paul II canonized St. Kolbe on Oct. 10, 1982.

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The friary’s museum in Nagasaki preserves artifacts from Kolbe’s mission and tells the story of a man who believed the world could be changed not by power or violence, but by love. His work in Nagasaki reveals a story of the patient labour of a missionary who built peace through prayer and work.

“Kolbe’s MI spirituality still speaks to us,” said Mix. “He reminds us that true peace begins not in politics or weapons, but in hearts surrendered to God through the Immaculata.”