Roger That! Did You Know That St. Maximilian Kolbe Is the Patron of Amateur Radio Operations?

SaintMaxNet.org was started by two ham-radio operators.

Eight years ago, amateur radio enthusiast and ham-radio operator Bill LaMay wondered who might be the patron saint of amateur radio. He began searching the internet for some answer since the field of amateur radio was rather a new one, only a little more than a century old.

It was not until 1895 that Guglielmo Marconi was able to transmit a radio signal a mere 1.5 miles. Then, radio transmission grew slowly. Thus it was likely that a patron saint would have to be a more recently canonized one. To LaMay’s surprise, the saint whose name came up in his searches was St. Maximilian Kolbe. Although not an official patronage given by the Church at this time, ham-radio enthusiasts find ample reason for the patronage because St. Maximilian Kolbe looked into such radio communication to spread his messages and mission promoting devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

During his search, LaMay came across another ham station — at SaintMaxNet.org — started by two ham-radio operators in 1998, when they also learned about St. Maximillian having an early radio license to experiment with broadcasting. The founders, Dr. Ted Figlock in Massachusetts and Lloyd Roach in Bedford, Pennsylvania, decided that they wanted to get the saint’s story out while sharing aspects of the Catholic faith.

Their founding of St. Maximilian Kolbe Radio Net began in 1997, when Roach came across Figlock’s band with its obviously religious-reference call letters that included “JMJ,” and, as ham operators do, they had a conversation. Roach mentioned he was in a new parish named St. Maximilian Kolbe but did not know much about the saint except that he was a martyr at the hands of the Nazis in Auschwitz. Their search then turned up information that this saint who was devoted to Mary Immaculate also had a connection to amateur radio. Roach told Figlock, “We should start a station to celebrate the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe.” By 1998, they did, launching the ham station they named St. Maximilian Kolbe Net. Roach emphasized, “We believe this is the only saint in the history of amateur radio — it’s so extremely unique.”

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