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Note: This is a very similar question to this:

Did eight Jesuit priests survive the nuking of Hiroshima in a scientifically inexplicable manner?

However, since in spite of their parallelism these are actually two different events, I've finally decided to ask two questions instead of one.

It is being frequently claimed by Catholic sources (e.g. Catholic Herald) and even Wikipedia that Franciscan friars survived the nuking of Nagasaki because of the friary being protected from the blast by a mountain. It is also claimed that st. Maximilian Kolbe had built the friary in this place contrary to what he had been advised. It is claimed that Maximillian Kolbe must have had some prior knowledge about the exact location of the nuclear blast.

Did the Franciscans really survive the blast?

Was the peculiar location of the friary the primary cause of their survival according to contemporary science?

Was Kolbe's decision to erect the friary in this peculiar location odd? I mean, can it be maintained that in all probability anyone in Kolbe's position would likely erect the friary elsewhere?

Andrew Grimm
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gaazkam
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    Stipulating all the facts; Does making a non-obvious choice really count as a miracle without an apparition, dream, prayer or anything? –  Jul 12 '17 at 22:25
  • @notstoreboughtdirt The former doesn’t imply the latter, but that’s not what I’m asking about in this particular question. – gaazkam Jul 12 '17 at 22:27
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    Questions of this nature always bothered me for 2 reasons: 1) Why isn't the survival rate for members of $religion caught up in such events never 100% or anywhere near it? Surely the god in question should protect all of their subjects in the same manner as they protected those who survived? 2) I thought death was supposed to be a release from Earthly obligations and you would then exist in a state of eternal bliss from then on? If that's so why is avoiding death such a good thing? – GordonM Jul 13 '17 at 08:53
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    I believe that in order to get a reasonable answer one will have to read the biography of St. Maximilian Kolbe by Antonio Ricciardi, the postulator for his cause of beatification and canonization (separate books) at Rome. I read it years ago and this very question is alluded to. St. Maximilian Kolbe made some statements about the friary and actually went against the opinions of ours on this matter. However, when he was asked by his confreres as to whether or not something was reveled to him, he remained silent. Riccardi himself believed that Maximilian Kolbe did have an apparition. – Ken Graham Jul 13 '17 at 17:36
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    @Ken Graham: Maybe he just liked the view from that location? – jamesqf Jul 13 '17 at 18:31
  • @GordonM IIUC according to Catholic teaching the purpose of a miracle is not necessarily its immediate effect (perhaps for the reasons you outlined in 2)), but rather they are either ways in which God can make His message more credible or in which God can tell something to His followers. – gaazkam Jul 13 '17 at 22:10
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    If we're going to attribute their survival to a miracle, don't we also have to attribute the deaths of other priests and friars to miraculous intervention - in which people were directed to build or be in places where God knew that death would result? This is clearly cherry-picking at its finest! – Mark Jul 14 '17 at 14:20
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    This question doesn't seem to me to be asking for a "yes/no it was a miracle" answer. There's three questions about this claim that can be answered objectively, and then folks can draw their own conclusions. We shouldn't try to spin the question before it is answered because we're afraid someone might draw a wrong (or "not what I believe") conclusion from the facts. – ColleenV Jul 14 '17 at 17:40
  • @GordonM I find both of your statements odd. 2) directly contradicts 1), and 2) is faulty in itself: The assumption that a deity would wish some specific individual to survive doesn't hinge in any way on survival being strictly better than death. If follower A is incredibly useful on earth, why not protect him, even if dying would be better for A individually? – sgf Jul 15 '17 at 12:46

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