Maksymilian Maria Kolbe. Ever since I first heard his story I’ve been astonished by his selfless generosity and his willingness to endure unimaginable suffering for the benefit of others. A lot of people have given their lives for others or have been forced to accept death for a principle, but there seems to be something fairly unique about actually volunteering to face a certain death in one of the most horrific ways possible to spare somebody else. He didn’t have to die (at least not when and how he did). He could have counted himself lucky not to be among those chosen for death by starvation, which, let’s face it, is what almost any other normal human being would have done. But no, he actually requested to suffer in this way. There’s also something deeply impressive about the way in which he calculated that if anybody had to be chosen that day, it was better that it should be a single man such as himself and not Franciszek Gajowniczek, who had a wife and children. Not a lot of us would calculate that our own life is of less utility than somebody else’s and on that basis give up our own life.