Chiesa di San Massimiliano Kolbe

On the eastern outskirts of Rome, along the Via Prenestina stands the parish dedicated to Saint Maximilian Kolbe. The Church and the parish building, inaugurated on April 26, 2009 by Cardinal Augusto Vallini, were designed by the architect Mattia del Prete. The large altarpiece, which dominates the presbytery, was frescoed by Kiko Arguello and his international team of painters during Lent 2009. Pope Benedict XVI in his pastoral visit to the Parish on 12.12.2010 said I admire together with you this new church and the parish buildings and with my presence I wish to encourage you to always better realize that Church of living stones that you yourselves are. It seems important to me, together with the Word, the presence of a place of hospitality of faith [...] So we must try to create, with the help of the Word, what the ancient Church created with the catechumenates: spaces in which to begin to live the Word, to follow the Word, to make it understandable and realistic, corresponding to forms of real experience. (Benedict XVI to the Clergy of the Diocese of Rome, 26/02/2009) The octagonal church alludes to the eighth day of creation, that is, the new creation that begins with the Resurrection of Christ. Eight is in fact the number par excellence of the New Testament: the number of rebirth, through baptism, and of the Resurrection, wrote Saint Ambrose at the dawn of the eighth day, when Christ rose from the dead, true salvation was given back to the people.