Marytown is called the “Third city of the Immaculate” (after Niepokalanow, Poland and Nagasaki, Japan) and is a ministry of the Conventual Franciscans Friars of St. Bonaventure Province. Marytown includes a Franciscan Friary, a contemporary Retreat and Conference Center, the Marytown Press – Catholic Books and Gifts, historic Chapels for liturgical life, and numerous outdoor shrines and rosary gardens.

Marytown is the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe as decreed by the U.S. Catholic Bishops. The National Shrine is a place of pilgrimage for the faithful and is dedicated to promoting the witness and life of St. Maximilian, a Conventual Franciscan friar and priest, martyred at Auschwitz. Blessed St. John Paul II referred to Maximilian Kolbe as “the patron Saint of our difficult century.” The National Shrine dedicated to the Saint includes the Shrine Chapel, an educational Holocaust exhibit, and the relics of St. Maximilian.