St. Sister Faustina

In the Old Testament – the Lord Jesus said to Sister Faustina – I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart (Diary 1588).

Saint Sister Faustina counts today among the greatest mystics and best-known Saints of the Church. Through her, the Lord Jesus passed on to the world the message of God’s mercy, revealed the universal model of Christian perfection, and encouraged Christians to proclaim to the world vexed by wars and conflicts, the truth about the Divine Mercy.

Saint Faustina Helena Kowalska was born on the 25 August, 1905 as the third of ten children to Marianna and Stanisław Kowalski, a family of farmers from the village of Głogowiec in the parish of Świnice Wareckie in the Łódź province. She was baptized with the name Helena. From a very tender age, she stood out because of her love of prayer, work, obedience, and also her sensitivity to the poor. At the age of seven, she already felt the first stirrings of a religious vocation, but she tried to stifle it because her parents would not give her permission to enter the convent. She went into service with a well-to-do family in the city of Łódź. However, impelled by a vision of the Suffering Christ, she left for Warsaw where she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy on the 1 August, 1925. She lived in the Congregation for thirteen years, working as a cook, gardener, and porter in many houses of the Congregation; she spent the longest time in Płock, Vilnius and Kraków. Although her life appeared very ordinary, monotonous and even drab, it nevertheless concealed an extraordinary mystery of a deep union with Christ who spoke through her heart and summoned her to undertake the mission to proclaim the truth of Divine Mercy to the world

The years of her religious life abounded with supernatural graces, such as: revelations of Merciful Jesus, suffering and risen, the visions of Our Lady and the Saints, hidden stigmata through which she participated in the Lord’s passion, the gift of bilocation, the reading of human souls, the gift of prophecy, as well as the gift of a mystical union with Christ through love. The living relationship with God, the Blessed Mother, the Angels, the Saints, the souls in Purgatory – with the entire supernatural world – was as equally real for her as was the world she perceived with her senses.

Sister Faustina described her mission in her Diary which she kept at the specific request of the Lord Jesus and her confessors. In it, she recorded faithfully all of the Lord’s wishes and also described the encounters between her soul and Him. The Lord Jesus said to her: “Secretary of My most profound mystery (…) Your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about My mercy, for the benefit of those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me” (Diary 1693). Sister Faustina remained faithful to these inner inspirations and under the influence of her spiritual director, Blessed Father Michał Sopoćko, she recorded her interior experiences concerning the mystery of the Divine Mercy and the need to proclaim it to the whole world.

The mission of Sister Faustina consisted in reminding the world about the truth of our faith revealed in the Sacred Scripture and present in the teaching of the Church, namely that God is merciful and has never forgotten about the humankind suffering because of sins; furthermore, it consisted in reminding mankind that He is present in the world together with all those who suffer and that through His mercy which is present in the sacraments of Holy Eucharist and Penance and in the works of mercy executed by people of good will, He accompanies them throughout life. Sister Faustina’s task consisted, among others, in imploring mercy for the whole world, particularly through the practice of the new forms of devotion to the Divine Mercy presented by the Lord Jesus, such as: the Image of Christ with the signature: Jesus, I Trust in You, the Feast of Divine Mercy on the first Sunday after Easter, the Chaplet to Divine Mercy and prayer at the Hour of Mercy (3:00 p.m.). The Lord Jesus attached great promises to the above forms of devotion, among others, those associated with obtaining unique spiritual gifts. The spiritual legacy of Saint Sister Faustina had paved the way to the creation of the Apostolic Movement of the Divine Mercy within the Church.

Consumed by disease and by innumerable sufferings, which she accepted and offered as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners, having reached full spiritual maturity and mystical union with God, Sister Faustina died in Kraków on the 5 October, 1938, at the age of just thirty-three. The reputation of the sanctity of her life grew as the devotion to the Divine Mercy spread and as graces were received from God through her intersession. In the years 1965-67, the Informative Process of her life and heroic virtues was undertaken in Kraków; and in the year 1968, the Process of Beatification was initiated in Rome. The latter was completed in December 1992. On the 18 April, 1993, the Holy Father John Paul II beatified her in St. Peter’s Square in Rome and subsequently canonized Saint Faustina on the 30 April, 2000. Her remains rest at the Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Kraków-Łagiewniki, Poland.

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